


previously, on other people's heartache

by blue000jay



Category: Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Don't Ship Real People FFS, Emetophobia, Minecraft, idk what else to tag this with, mild violence?
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-10-13
Updated: 2020-10-19
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 25,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26981080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/blue000jay/pseuds/blue000jay
Summary: "tubbo, niki, eret study"-Niki is one of the most beautiful people Tubbo thinks he’s ever met.She comes to them on a ship- beautiful face untouched by war and filled with laughter and sunshine. She docks her boat on the sand and splashes her way toward them, a hand in the air and a hello on her tongue. The dress she’s wearing is torn and ragged around the edges from her journey, hitched up to her knees as she exits the boat and steps onto dry land.-there is no romance, you freaks. this is purely about characters played by minecraft streamers, so if you're one of them, PLEASE DON'T READ THIS.or do. if you do, shout me out! i'm a big fan, i love your work. i have no shame, and i'm proud of this.
Relationships: Dave | Technoblade & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Eret & Niki | Nihachu, Eret & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Jschlatt & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Niki | Nihachu & Toby Smith | Tubbo, Niki | Nihachu & Wilbur Soot, Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit
Comments: 54
Kudos: 298





	1. disclaimer

**Author's Note:**

> catch me on TWITTER! @toobbo_ i retweet fanart for the most part.

disclaimer:

this started at 11:57 AM on october the 12th, 2020 after i took a shower and thought of the very first line. it began as a therapeutic character study that i was going to keep to myself, until i emerged from a coma at 2 in the afternoon and realized i had written 17 pages of prose about minecraft block game players. 

then i wrote _interlude_ , and decided i was too proud of this to keep secret. 

if you're any of the people/characters included in this fic, please let me know if any of it makes you uncomfortable and i will take this down immediately. if you like it, please also let me know so i can brag forever and get my sweet, sweet internet clout. >:)

much love, r


	2. pt. 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> reminder: don't ship real people! that's weird!
> 
> twitter: @toobbo_

Niki is one of the most beautiful people Tubbo thinks he’s ever met.

She comes to them on a ship- beautiful face untouched by war and filled with laughter and sunshine. She docks her boat on the sand and splashes her way toward them, a hand in the air and a hello on her tongue. The dress she’s wearing is torn and ragged around the edges from her journey, hitched up to her knees as she exits the boat and steps onto dry land. It’s her first time on land for a while, she tells them, sitting down in the sand and laughing at the way it sticks in between her toes. Tubbo isn’t the first person to talk to her (Wilbur takes up that duty with a strange glint in his eye) but he is the first person to call her beautiful.

“You’re so pretty,” he says, the words slipping out before he can stop them. Her eyes go wide and Tommy immediately bursts into laughter, a dull pain flashing through Tubbo’s shoulder as a friendly hit is thrown his way from the boy next to him.

“You can’t just say shit like that, Tubbo!” Tommy says, giggles winding down and his smile turning more mischievous. “Unless you’re Wil.”

From there the conversation around him lulls into background noise. Tubbo’s used to having to ignore Wilbur and Tommy’s spats, tuning them out with ease. Niki seems amused, eyes flicking between the arguing pair for a moment before landing on Tubbo. His cheeks are warm. He can blame it partially on the hot sun, high in the sky above them and making Niki’s frizzy hair glow like a halo.

“Thank you,” she says, the words making their way through the noise of Wilbur and Tommy’s bickering, which has grown louder. Tubbo can see others making their way down the hill and he knows that their secret girl, their secret piece of sunshine won’t be a secret for much longer. 

“Welcome,” he mutters, then gives Tommy an elbow to the ribcage. When Tommy turns to him with vitriol on his tongue he ignores it, pointing to the newcomers that have stepped onto the beach. He sees the way Tommy’s shoulders stiffen a bit and he knows his own do too, remnants of caution from fighting for so long. It’s probably deserved too, since one of the people in the group is Dream and another is Eret. Despite the peace they’d established (and possible friendships) it was hard to shove everything they’d done aside so quickly. Wilbur’s on his feet in a flash, Tommy right behind him and Tubbo behind Tommy. Niki stays sitting, staring at them all with an odd expression on her face. Dream approaches first, looking them all over and then nodding toward her. She nods back. Tubbo knows something has been exchanged there, but he’s not sure what exactly. His hand finds Tommy’s.

“Welcome,” Dream says, catching Wilbur’s eye for a second before turning his gaze back to Niki. “I’m assuming you’re here to stay?”

* * *

Niki builds a bakery.

It’s one of the first things she does after learning about their history. Without hesitation she proclaims herself a new member of L’Manberg, stealing Tommy’s hat off his head and holding herself tall. She builds her home down on the beach, her boat left where she’d pushed it up against the sand. Tubbo decides that’s no way to keep a boat, so he joins her one day down on the beach with a cart full of wood and nails. By the time the sun sets, there’s a dock in progress. Tubbo spends a lot of days on the beach, barefoot in the sand and gratefully accepting water from Niki whenever she offers it. They both acquire a tan, and freckles, and one time sunburns so bad that Tubbo can’t move without wincing. Tommy seems irked by the amount of time he’s losing with Tubbo, so their little party of two becomes three. Then four, when Wilbur joins. Five, when Fundy decides enough is enough and joins. Before long, there’s a series of docks spread out across the water and Niki’s got a functioning bakery. She sells items to everyone, regardless of past alliances or betrayals- Tubbo finds this out when he arrives one day with a crate of eggs for her and finds Eret laughing in the kitchen, flour smeared over his cheek. For a minute he’s terrified, that laugh ringing through his mind as he stares at a sword nearly gutting him and a mask with a haunting smile. But then Niki pops her head in and catches his eye and he’s back in the bakery, in real time. He sets the eggs down on the counter, swallows, then flees with a tiny goodbye. 

When Niki asks about it a couple days later, he shrugs and laughs and tells her Tommy was expecting him back quick. 

But Eret doesn’t disappear.

In fact, Tubbo starts seeing him around the bakery more and more often. It’s not… technically in L’Manberg lands, since Niki wanted to meet everyone and let anyone in her establishment, but it still irks Tubbo seeing him there. He doesn’t stick around when Eret’s there, and Niki notices. Tubbo’s sure that Eret notices too, but at least he doesn’t say anything about it. Tubbo doesn’t really care about what Eret thinks, after all.

That is, until Niki proves to be more clever than both of them imagined.

Tubbo arrives on Thursday- it’s their baking day. They’d planned this weeks ago, deciding to cook as much as they could on one day without fail. Tubbo had been looking forward to it for weeks, since Wilbur and Tommy had been demanding more of his time lately and leaving him with less hours to spend with Niki. He arrives in the morning, when the dew is still damp on the grass and mostly everyone’s still asleep. Everyone, it seems, except him, Niki, and Eret. 

Who’s standing in the kitchen, apron on and mug in hand.

Niki’s nowhere to be found, so Tubbo just. Stands there. Not-looking at Eret, while staring at him at the same time. The mug in his hand is steaming and if Tubbo remembers right, it’s probably hot cocoa with a hint of speed potion in it. He never had to use a pot to wake up like Wilbur and Eret and sometimes Fundy did- he just liked the cocoa. 

There’s a second mug sitting on the counter.

Eret gestures to it.

Tubbo considers fleeing again. In fact, he turns around to do so and is trying to come up with an excuse for Niki in his head but he jumps when he turns and sees her at the door, smiling in that beautiful way she does. His cheeks are hot.

“Hi, Tubbo!” She says, cheerful as ever. Niki wasn’t usually a morning person, but Tubbo thinks she’s made an exception for today. She’s got a bag of flour in her arms. “I hope you’re ready for today!! Eret’s going to help too- I’m thinking we start with cookies, then move on to something more difficult. Macaroons, maybe?” She nudges past him, setting the bag of flour on the counter and turning back to him. She’s still smiling, but it’s got something more to it. Something clever, and pushy. After a second of silence on Tubbo’s end, she picks up the mug on the counter and offers it to him, just like Eret had a moment ago. He glances over to the other, who’s still sipping at his own mug nonchalantly in a way that would surely make Tommy want to punch him. 

Tubbo’s not Tommy, though. So he takes the mug and sips the cocoa, giving in.

Both of the boys in the kitchen are quiet. They take orders from Niki and dance around each other in the small space like any sort of physical contact will make them implode. Their first batch of cookies goes into the furnace-turned-oven in record time, with both of them focusing on their tasks more than fooling around like normal. Niki says nothing about it to either of them, instead praising them for their hard work and ruffling Tubbo’s hair. She hugs Eret with one arm, and Tubbo tries not to think about it too hard. He knows she knows and he knows Eret knows and it’s all one big ball of tension crammed so tightly together that Tubbo’s quite certain that the whole world will explode when it finally pops. 

Niki dyes the macaroons pink and argues with Eret over the color of the frosting. White or pink, they can’t decide and it’s taking them forever to argue it out. Tubbo’s been quiet most of the day, but he finally speaks up and over the both of them.

“I think white’s the best choice,” he says, siding with Eret. Purely for cosmetics. 

Niki smiles.

The macaroons taste _lovely_.

* * *

Tubbo becomes more accustomed to Eret’s presence. There are a couple times he flinches, a couple times he lapses into silence, but opening up is getting easier and easier. He laughs more in the kitchen with the both of them, and their baking creations get more and more complex. They work well as a team, taking orders from Niki. Neither of them get mad when Tubbo messes up reading a recipe out, even when it results in a horrible cake that tastes like soap. They laugh it off, Eret clapping him on the shoulder and telling Tubbo that it’ll be right the next time. Tubbo thinks back on it that night, in bed, and realizes he didn’t even flinch when Eret touched him. He’s always been the most forgiving of the group and he knows it. Even still, it surprises him.

He doesn’t tell Tommy. The thing they’ve made- the easy friendship, the laughter, the mistakes, they all stay in the bakery. Their little team is safe in there, swaying to music from a jukebox in the corner as Tubbo stirs frosting and Eret mixes a batter and Niki sits on the counter, humming to both of them with a book in her lap. Tubbo thinks if he tells Tommy, it might ruin it. He finds out anyways. Wilbur actually finds out first, opening the door to the bakery only to find Tubbo caught up in Eret’s grasp and shrieking with laughter as a flour-covered hand descends toward his hair. With a sight like that, it’s not really a surprise when Wilbur drops the bundle of flowers from his hand and equips his sword instead, blade steady as he holds it up to Eret’s neck. Tubbo’s laughter immediately switches off, fear coursing through him instead.

“Wil, no-” he shouts, wiggling out of Eret’s suddenly weakened grasp and lifting his arm to knock the sword away by it’s blunt side. For a second they’re all stood still, Wilbur staring at Tubbo with no small amount of shock.

Behind him, he can hear Eret’s small but emphatic, “Shit.” 

Niki enters the room. “What’s wrong?” She asks, having been lured out by the abrupt end of their laughter. Her eyes trace from Tubbo’s face to the sword to Wilbur, blinking a bit as she takes in the scene in front of them. “Oh.”

“Niki,” Wilbur says, sword dropping a bit from where he’d still had his arm raised. Tubbo lets his own arm down, staring at the two as they seemingly have a battle of their own, albeit without words. Eret’s still behind him, and Tubbo resists the urge to reach out and hold his hand. He feels small.

“I’m allowed to have my own friends,” Niki says, and her voice is sharp. “I’m L’Manbergian, but I’m my own person too, Wil.”

“But him? Of all people? You know what he did to us, Niki-” Wilbur’s voice drops a bit at the end and Tubbo’s right there with him, staring at the dark walls around them as Tommy curiously presses a button in the center of the room. Niki’s voice draws him out.

“Eret’s my friend,” she says, and Tubbo hears a quiet exhale from behind him. 

“You weren’t here! You don’t understand!” Wilbur lifts a hand to his head, and Tubbo feels a hand on his shoulder as Eret steps forward.

“I should go,” he says quietly, glancing down at Tubbo who meets his gaze only for a second. There’s a little bit of fear in his friend’s eyes, and he looks away before he can decipher anything else. 

“Yeah, you should.” Wilbur at least doesn’t raise the sword again, letting it hang by his side as he spits the words at Eret. They glare at each other as Eret passes him, headed for the door. Niki’s face has fallen, as though she hadn’t realized the severity of the hatred before now. Tubbo thinks that despite her best efforts, maybe she hasn’t. The room is quiet now, and Tubbo hesitantly shuffles to the side. Maybe he should go, too-

“Tubbo, I’m not fucking finished with you,” Wilbur says and he winces. Eret was right. Shit.

Tommy finds out when Wilbur drags Tubbo back to L’Manberg, scolding him the whole way. At first, Tommy’s defensive, yelling at Wilbur for yelling at Tubbo. Then he finds out what went down, and then he’s _also_ yelling at Tubbo. It hurts more than he lets on, but he knows his friends are just concerned. They don’t want him to get hurt. But it still stings. When they’ve finally exhausted themselves from arguing and scolding and finally gone to bed, Tubbo sneaks out to the walls. He walks the perimeter, staring up at the dark expanse and the stars beyond it. He remembers a time before the walls, walking along a similar path and being a bit happier, maybe. The stone is cold against his back as he slides down it to sit, his cheeks are warm and wet. Soon enough, his sleeves are damp from how often he wipes his face. 

Someone holds out a handkerchief and he takes it. Then jumps, as his tired brain jumbles into place what he just did and what happened. Glancing to the side, he finds Eret sitting next to him, dark shades obscuring most of his face and hiding his eyes from view. In the dark, his crown looks like it’s made of netherite or some other dark metal. Tubbo knows it’s not actually, seen it shine in the sun. He says nothing for a moment, then finally speaks up.

“If Wilbur or Tommy or Fundy find you out here they’ll be really mad,” he says, using the piece of cloth he’d been given to wipe his face. Eret sighs.

“You’re not?” He asks, and Tubbo shakes his head. After a second, he leans over and props his head onto Eret’s shoulder. He can feel how the other goes stiff, then relaxes into it. 

“No,” he says quietly, staring out across the darkened expanse of L’Manberg. “You’re my friend.”

“That’s nice,” Eret says quietly, almost breathlessly. Like he hadn’t been expecting it. Tubbo wonders why- he’s considered them friends again for a while now. “You’re my friend too.”

“I know,” Tubbo says, feeling an arm drape around his shoulders and fight off the chill from the stone behind them. Eret built this wall, for the most part. It had taken him weeks, working on end until it was done. 

“I’m sorry about today,” Eret says, tipping his head onto Tubbo’s. “I should’ve handled that better, maybe. Or not come at all. I’m sure Wilbur’s mad with Niki, right?” 

“They didn’t talk much after you left,” Tubbo tells him, shrugging slightly. “Wil mostly yelled at me and we came back here. I think he’s gonna talk to Niki tomorrow.”

“I’ll make myself scarce for a bit,” Eret says, and Tubbo watches him straighten out his legs into the grass to get more comfortable. He wonders how long this’ll last, until someone finds them. Probably not too much longer- Tommy’s never been good at staying asleep. Especially since the war, but Tubbo can’t really blame him.

“Then why are you here?” He asks, fiddling with the handkerchief in his hand. His tears have stopped flowing for now, and he thinks he’s done crying over it. Everyone likes to baby him and tease him about crying, but Tubbo’s done it less than they all like to pretend. He thinks they like having someone to take care of.

“I come here more than you guys know, I think,” Eret says, and that surprises Tubbo. He pushes himself up a bit, looking at him in the dark. He wonders how well Eret can see his face through the sunglasses, wonders if he can see his confusion in the dark.

“What? Why?”

“I like these walls,” Eret explains, patting the stone behind them both. He runs his fingers over the lines where the bricks are connected. “I put a lot of effort into this. Sucks that I’m not technically allowed to admire them now.” Tubbo knows Eret’s working on a castle for himself at the moment- they’d spoken about it before. But he’s never spoken about his castle in the tone he’s got right now. Wistful, maybe a little sad. 

Like he regrets something.

“...oh.” He’s not sure what to say, so he says nothing. Instead, he leans back and settles into Eret’s shoulder again. After a long bout of silence and exhaustion creeping into his tired eyes, he finally breaks the quiet. “I’m glad we’re friends.”

“Me too, Tubbo. Me too.”

* * *

Wilbur and Niki make up. Tubbo knows it when he sees a bundle of flowers soaking up water from a vase, in the sunshine inside Niki’s window. She sews a flag for L’Manberg, a big and beautiful thing that flies high above their nation. Eret isn’t around the bakery as often as Niki and Tubbo would like, but he’s there and slowly, they return to normal. Tommy apologizes to Tubbo one lazy Sunday, when they’re lying in the grass and Tubbo’s got tiny braids in his hair. Tommy’s never apologized to him before, but Tubbo accepts it immediately and holds his hand without hesitation. He can see the tension drain out of his friend, and smiles. Tommy even helps bake with them after that, coming around from time to time. Eret’s sometimes there and Tommy’s wary, but relaxes after Eret proves he’s not trying to poison them all. He laughs more, and Wilbur never stops smiling when he’s in the bakery. Flowers decorate every window in the small space and there’s more often than not, music in the air. Niki’s still the most beautiful person he’s ever met.

A man with ram horns and a battered suit washes up on their shore. 


	3. pt. 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> remember: these are interpretations of events on the dream smp, with a focus on tubbo, niki, and eret!
> 
> twitter: @toobbo_

Schlatt pretends to be a lot of things. Tubbo’s familiar with pretending- he’s always faked himself a little bit. Even Tommy, his best friend, doesn’t know how much he pretends. He’s experienced enough with it that he recognizes it in Schlatt right away. He holds himself too high, too proud. He struts around in a way that makes Tubbo wonder if he’s ever been genuine in his life. Schlatt pretends to be nice, pretends to be old, pretends to be experienced. He pretends to flirt and joke and smile. It’s all held just above a barrier that Tubbo can’t crack- he knows the Schlatt they’re facing is fake but he can’t push below the surface without some amount of fear pulsing through him. He starts to think maybe none of Schlatt is real, and the layers of faking and pretend go all the way down to his very core. 

Niki doesn’t like Schlatt. She makes it clear one day when it’s just Tubbo and her out on the docks, fishing and cleaning them so that they’ll have dinner done by the time Wilbur and Tommy get back from talking with Dream. Tubbo mentions him in passing, a funny story about Quackity and Schlatt and himself, and Niki’s face turns into a scowl. Tubbo trails off as she stares out into the sun, squinting and scowling. When he asks about it, she sighs, shaking her head so hard she nearly dislodges the bun she’d so neatly put up this morning. 

“I don’t like him,” she says, staring out over the ocean and putting a hand on the fishing rod next to her, trying to feel for any tremors that would indicate a bite. “He feels… wrong.” Tubbo knows what she means, but he laughs and tells her she’s being silly. She glances over to him and he knows that she understands despite his smile and words.

He never should’ve laughed it off so easily. 

Tommy’s  _ gone _ . Wilbur’s gone, and injured, and Tubbo was going to follow them but Fundy was staring him down with a look so intense he thought he might die if he so much as moved an inch. Sneaking away wasn’t an option, not with so many hostile stares and glances. Eret is silent in the wake of the announcement, not moving to follow anyone in the moment or join the chase. Niki’s furious- he can hear her screaming. First at Schlatt, then at Fundy. Their voices bounce back and forth across the field and through the chairs and Tubbo’s so overwhelmed that he can’t even cry. Nothing moves, and his gaze meets Eret’s through the crowd. They stand there for a second and then Tubbo takes a step, heading his way. Craving the comfort that he’s sure the other man will give him. He only makes it halfway before Schlatt calls his name.

Tubbo does what he has to do to survive. There’s danger in Schlatt’s words and smile, even as he calls Tubbo his buddy and right-hand man. The tears that wouldn’t come only minutes earlier flow freely as he calls out for Tommy in the woods, knowing the search is fruitless. He comes back empty-handed and Schlatt laughs it off, clapping a hand onto Tubbo’s shoulder in a way reminiscent of Eret and Wilbur both. He tries his hardest not to flinch, but does anyway, and he knows Schlatt sees it. 

The walls come down the next day. Eret doesn’t help, refusing to move from one spot as he watches Fundy and Tubbo and everyone else tear down the bricks he’d placed with such care. Tubbo hesitates every second of it, hands shaking as he dumps bricks into piles and as Schlatt condemns every piece of their nation’s history. Eret either won’t look him in the eye, or his shades block any emotion from catching on his face. Tubbo isn’t sure what to think when Eret looks away from him. Niki is nowhere to be found, even that night when Tubbo visits the bakery in some sort of blind, desperate hope. It’s empty and cold and the cookies that had been made in pre-celebration are cold and nearly stale on the counter. Tubbo takes one, bites into it, and then cries so hard he throws up in the flowerbed outside. 

The next day, he finds out from Schlatt Niki’s been imprisoned. It makes horrible sense. Tubbo’s contemplating every sort of escape idea he can possibly hatch for hours on end as he methodically continues tearing down the wall, but in the end he doesn’t need to enact anything. Niki escapes on her own and disappears and Schlatt clasps a hand on Tubbo’s shoulder with an ominous,  _ we’ll get her next time, champ _ . Tubbo’s deadset on never letting that happen, and it seems he’s not the only one, either. A few nights into Schlatt’s presidency, Eret visits him in his bunker. He’s not sure how Eret... found out about the bunker, but it doesn’t matter. He visits him and hugs him so hard that Tubbo’s scared he’s broken a rib. They both cry a little, and Eret tells him Niki’s safe and in the castle. They cry some more. 

Tubbo finds excuse after excuse to get out of Schlatt’s sight and see Niki. He spends a lot of his time in the castle, but none of it’s very happy. Niki watches her flag burn from afar and swears so hard and so viciously that Tubbo’s sort of scared of her- he’s also reminded of Tommy, which makes him unbearably sad. He’s heard nothing from his friend for ages and there’s a constant fear in his gut that he’ll never hear anything again. It’s another week of anger and fear and desperation before some good news comes to the three of them in the form of a letter.

It’s got Wilbur’s handwriting and it’s addressed to Niki, technically, but they all sit in Eret’s throne, pressed and gathered around each other to read it. None of them cry. Their tears have long since dried up after the first few days, and Tubbo’s learned that Schlatt hates crying, especially when Tubbo does it. Suppressing the emotion is getting easier and easier. The letter is short but promises more to come after, with little information in it for everyone’s safety. It tells them that Wilbur and Tommy are safe for now, and hiding. They’ve got help on the way, and they miss L’Manberg and Niki. There’s no mention of Tubbo or Eret, but it’s enough to know that their friends are somewhat safe. Niki sends a letter back, and they all sign it when she’s done. The carrier bird flies off of the highest tower in Eret’s castle and for the first time in a while, Tubbo can breathe. 

The next bird arrives after a week of anxiety and fear. Schlatt’s been building new spaces and offices and buildings, Tubbo by his side constantly. There’s been less time to sneak off to visit Niki and Eret in the castle, less time to visit his bunker and write down everything he can. Schlatt’s gotten wary of him and kept him busy and close, so it’s no surprise that it takes him a couple days to find time to escape to the castle. He goes under the guise of delivering taxes to Eret, which he actually technically does- he dumps the bag of gold into the treasury room, huffing a bit and loosening his tie as he heads out, locking the door behind him. There are footsteps, and then Tubbo’s being hugged. 

“What-” he manages to get out before Niki earnestly thrusts a letter at him. It’s Tommy’s handwriting. 

In all, there are three letters. The first is from Wilbur and proclaims loudly on the front that it’s FOR NIKI, NOT ANYONE ELSE, YOU NOSY BITCHES. The second is a letter from Wilbur to Niki and Tubbo, but it’s clear that he knows Eret’s reading it by the occasional hostility and openness in his words. The last is a letter from Tommy to Tubbo, and neither Niki or Eret pester him about the contents. He’s glad, because Tommy uses some choice words in it and demands explanations and it’s just so  _ Tommy _ that it makes him cry for the first time in about a week and a half. He wishes he could keep it with him, but the risk is too great so he entrusts it to Niki. She swears to protect it with her life.

The letter to all of them isn’t shocking, but it’s not hopeful either.

_ To my LOYAL citizens, _ it begins. 

_ I’m assuming this is being read by more than one pair of eyes. First of all, fuck you. Some things are meant to be private. Second of all, it’s nice to know you’re not all horrible bastard traitors.  _

_ We’re still safe, Tommy and I. I’m not going to tell you where just yet, out of concern that this doesn’t reach who I want it to reach. Just know we’re okay, and we’re surviving. Our help has arrived- I know you know about our brother, Techno- _

“Holy shit.” 

_ -and he arrived a few days ago. He’s always been into the whole chaos thing, so this’ll be good for him I suppose. Pretty good for us as well, and we’re not planning on giving up to Schlatt just yet. Keep your heads high, and expect further correspondence. Don’t trust anyone. _

_ Signed, your President, _

_ Wilbur Soot _

“Technoblade?” Eret asks, and Tubbo stares down at the lines of ink in front of them. Niki’s hands are still shaking a bit from her excitement of getting to finally read the letter, and Tubbo gently takes it from her grasp so that he can decipher some of the words a little better. Wilbur’s handwriting has never been the cleanest. At least it’s not as bad as Tommy’s. 

“We might have a chance,” Niki says, because everyone’s heard of Technoblade. Tubbo knew Tommy and Wilbur had grown up with him, close enough to consider each other family, but he never knew that the infamous soldier would drop everything to come to his brother’s aid. Even he’s surprised.

“I wish we knew where they were,” he says quietly, turning the sheet of paper over like there might be more on the back. There’s not. 

“It’s for the best we don’t,” Eret says, reaching out to gently take the letter from Tubbo’s grasp and scan it, before folding it up. “I’m going to burn this. Tubbo, you should write something in return so I can send the bird out before it leaves on it’s own. Then you should go- Schlatt’s been too cautious with you lately.” As much as it hurts, Tubbo knows he’s right. With a nod, he sets off to find a quill and ink. He comes back a bit later after three scribbled attempts, holding the pen out to Niki and she smiles. They lie on the sun-stained wood of Eret’s front hall, Tubbo quietly narrating what he wants her to write. Tommy’s handwriting is bad, but Tubbo’s is atrocious.

_ Tommy (and Wilbur I guess and Techno??), _

_ I miss you. I know you say you’re okay, but I really hope it’s true. I’m sorry I couldn’t follow you out that first day- I wish I was there with you. A lot.  _

_ I’ve been keeping track of everything Schlatt’s been doing. I can send you info if you’d like. To keep this one short, it’s Manberg now. I’m Secretary of State and Quackity’s still vice president. Schlatt’s been building new buildings and stuff. I’ve been trying my hardest to keep him from ruining everything, but it’s really really difficult. He’s scary. _

_ Please stay safe. _

He doesn’t have Niki sign his name, even if he knows the information he’d written down was damning enough. If someone got the letter before their friends did, he’d be fucked. But it was worth it, he imagined. He wasn’t sure what else to put, so he let Niki finish off their little bundle of letters with her own. He’s got his arm over his face, still lying on his back on the floor as he listens to Niki scratch away at the paper. Her letter is much longer than Tubbo’s, but he knows Wilbur will appreciate it. The sun is making him sleepy- he feels like a cat, stretched out on the floor of a home that’s safe and sound. The only thing that sucks is the scratchy fabric of his suit pants and shirt (he’d taken his blazer and tie off the moment he could) instead of the comforting wool of his L’Manberg uniform. He wasn’t sure where that had gone, actually. He’d taken it off one night and never put it back on. Maybe Niki had it.

He hoped she did.

Before long Niki’s done with her letter and shaking Tubbo gently. He removes his arm from his face and stares up at her miserably. She gives him a quiet smile, then ruffles his hair.

“Time to go,” she tells him, voice a bit pained. He tries not to show how much it hurts as he leaves the walls of Eret’s castle, feeling so exposed as he climbs his way down to the white house and frames of office builds and apartments. 

* * *

Niki eventually goes back to her bakery. After a few more weeks, Schlatt’s settled down into his role and lightened up on the paranoia- Niki’s heavily taxed, but she’s not arrested on sight.

“And besides,” Schlatt claims, munching on a cookie he’d gotten from the box Tubbo had brought back to the white house, “she wouldn’t be doing such amazing fucking cooking in prison!” 

Tubbo guesses he’s right. 

He visits her less than he wants to. The letters from Pogtopia- the name of their new rebellion base, Tommy explains- come about once a week, maybe less. They’re short, the words tired and exhaustion crawling through the page. Tubbo figures his letters are the same. He doesn’t feel the same. He feels overworked, tired, beaten down. He knows there are smudges under his eyes that won’t go away no matter how hard he tries to sleep. Wilbur takes Tubbo up on his information offer, which means Tubbo spends a lot of his free time writing down what he can about Manberg. The weak points, the schedules, the recent events. Wilbur asks for it all and more, so much so that it feels like he’s writing a novel sometimes. It’s fucking exhausting. Niki notices it, and Eret too. The times they’re all together are often spent either sleeping or cooking or reading letters- there’s nothing else to do, after all. Tubbo sleeps easiest when he’s wedged between them, listening to the soft lull of their voices as they discuss various things and people. The topic of Dream has come up infrequently, but that’s apparently the topic of tonight. He’s not asleep yet, but well on his way there when the words suddenly catch his attention.

“-say he was spotted a few chunks away.” 

“Seriously?” Eret’s voice is disbelieving, and Tubbo can feel him shift a bit. They’re in the bakery, and Niki’s on his left while Eret’s on his right. Niki’s bed is small, but they fit with a bit of maneuvering. Both of them go quiet, and Tubbo knows they’re looking at him. He evens his breathing out, eyes shut.

“Yeah,” Niki continues after a moment. “Sapnap and George were talking about it the other day. I heard them in the woods. They say he was at a mountain, or something. I wrote to Wil about it this week, but he didn’t say anything.”

“You think he’s picking a side?” Tubbo’s breath nearly stops. Dream? Picking a side? More specifically- the unspoken idea that he might be on  _ their _ side?

“I don’t know. Neither of them said anything like that. I think they just miss him.” Niki’s voice is soft. Understanding. Tubbo knows they all understand. Sapnap, George, and Dream had been a trio for years before he’d arrived here. He’d never understood what caused Dream to just up and disappear, leaving his friends behind. He wasn’t forced to do it, after all.

“Not surprising. He’s been gone since before Schlatt even came into power. Still, though.” Eret sighs, running his fingers through Tubbo’s hair before removing them. Tubbo can hear the ruffle as he does the same to Niki.

“You think he’d help Wil and Tommy? Even after the war?” Niki sounds hesitant. She hadn’t been there for the war, Tubbo knows. But she’d heard stories from all of them, even Eret.

“I… don’t know.” Eret sounds hesitant. Tubbo’s trying really hard not to open his eyes and look at the expressions on their faces, but it’s super hard. “I think there’s more complexity in there than we see.”

“You diiiiiid join his side. So you probably know him best out of the three of us.”

“Most of what I did was with George and Sapnap. Dream was rarely there when I was. I don’t think he trusted me as far as he could throw me.” 

“That seems to be a common trend with you.” Both of them dissolve into giggles, and then Niki pokes Tubbo’s face. Shit. “I see you smiling, Tubbo.” 

“It’s true!” He says, dropping the sleeping facade. He’s awake now anyways, the conversation having dragged him out of his catatonic state. “Nobody trusts Eret.”

“Except us,” Niki points out, poking him again. Tubbo laughs, glancing up at Eret as he does. 

“Except us,” he assures him, and Eret just smiles.

* * *

The next day, Niki rushes into Tubbo’s bunker with a breathless shout. Tubbo nearly yells at her- what if Schlatt had been around? Or George, or Quackity? They would’ve been so angry, and blown everything to smithereens- 

Then he reads the letter.

Wilbur’s told them where Pogtopia is. 

“Holy shit,” he breathes, and Niki nods, not able to say another word as she pulls Tubbo into a hug. Against her shoulder, he asks, “Have you told Eret?”

“Not yet,” she says, letting him go and nodding down. “I think Wil just wants you and I to go. I’m going to tell him, obviously, but I’m burning this first. I’m not risking this getting out to anyone. Memorize it.”

Tubbo does.

It’s not technically instructions to Pogtopia. It’s instructions to a meeting place, outside of Manberg’s borders. A place where Tommy will meet them and bring them back, to see what they’ve made. 

Tommy.

They go the next day. Tubbo tells Schlatt he’s going to be out for the day, and Schlatt just tells him to be careful and bring a sword. He does, but the minute he’s out of range of the white house he strips his blazer and vest off, loosening his tie. Niki meets him by the docks, and they step onto the boat that had carried her here so long ago. 

“Eret’s staying behind,” she explains as she tugs down the sail, letting the wind carry them off and around the coast a bit. Tubbo helps, holding down a rope and steering them carefully around an outcropping of sand and stone. “If Schlatt starts to get suspicious, he’s going to light the beacon in his castle. We should be able to see it, and hurry back.” It’s a good plan. It’s a smart plan. Tubbo’s never been so glad to have such smart friends before. 

They tug the boat ashore, Tubbo leaving his jacket and assorted clothing items behind in favor of just his shirt and pants. Niki covers it up with some branches, doing her best to disguise it, then off they go. Following the hints Wilbur had left for them, they finally arrive at the meeting place that had been described. It’s a big field, and Tubbo vaguely knows he’s been here before. He used to explore often, and there’s a path down the center of the tall grass that has been worn down by hooves.

At the other end of the path is Tommy. 

He’s moving before he can even realize it, racing down the trampled space and ignoring the laughter behind him from Niki. Tommy hears it and glances up, a smile lighting up his face so, so, so bright.

He meets him about two-thirds of the way, smashing into each other so hard they’re knocked to the ground, breathless. Tubbo doesn’t care. Tommy’s hugging him so hard he still can’t breathe even after the shock of the fall has left him, and all he can smell is the smoky scent that never leaves Tommy’s hair- the smell of grass and fire and hope. He’s hugging Tommy just as hard, and he swears he’s never going to let go.

He’s serious about that. By the time Niki convinces them to get up and head to Pogtopia, Tubbo’s made up his mind. He rides on Tommy’s back, clinging in a way he hasn’t gotten to do for weeks and for a few minutes, everything is  _ right _ .

“You weren’t followed, right?” Tommy asks, slowing down after a little bit. Tubbo’s sort of noticed how skinny Tommy’s gotten, and slides off his back as he slows. He takes his hand instead. Tommy doesn’t try to make him let go. 

“Nope,” Niki promises, her face getting a bit serious as she glances behind them. “We were careful.” They had been. Stopping occasionally, and backtracking. Making sure no one was following. Hiding the boat had been another precaution. Tommy nods, glancing over at Tubbo, then freezes a bit.

“Tubbo,” he says, and Tubbo is confused and a bit concerned, because Tommy sounds angry. “What the fuck are you wearing?”

Oh. Oh! “A suit,” he explains, biting the inside of his cheek and glancing down. “Or, at least, half of it. It’s the dress code in Manberg. I didn’t have time to grab anything else to change into before we got here.” 

“Dress code?” Tommy sounds incredulous, and angry. Tubbo can’t blame him. “Fucking disgusting.” Tubbo agrees, but he says nothing as Tommy leads them onwards.

* * *

Pogtopia is amazing.

Tommy leads them down a small dirt hole, then a stone staircase, which opens up into the most beautiful ravine he’s ever seen. They’ve obviously been working hard, trying to make a home in a place that isn’t home. There’s fire pits and rooms and cobble everywhere, bridges and stones and a potato farm, apparently? It spans the whole ravine, and waiting at the bottom of the stairs is Wilbur and a man Tubbo assumes is Technoblade.

Niki cries in Wil’s arms for a good while before any actual talking is done. Tommy and Tubbo give them their privacy, Technoblade joining them as Tommy gives him the official (and short) tour. 

Tubbo’s not sure what he thinks of Technoblade. He’s heard stories that make him fearful at first, but the man doesn’t look very scary. He’s wearing a white flouncy shirt and dirt-stained trousers, face sweaty and dirty from- “Farmin’ potatoes,” he says, standing over a field that’s big enough to feed a small village. How he got them to grow so deep down in the earth is a mystery to Tubbo, staring across it with wonder. Techno turns to them, reaching back to pin up his hair carefully. It’s long and pink and Tubbo wonders if that’s where Tommy learned to braid so nicely. “If you need me, I’ll be here.” 

“Fucking ridiculous,” Tommy says, but Tubbo can hear the fondness in his voice. He glances across the farm for a second and then has a flash of an idea. It’s been a while since he’s done anything like it, but… 

“I think I can do something with this.” 

The automation project takes a few trips to Pogtopia to finish. By the end of it, Tubbo’s not scared of Technoblade one bit. The guy’s a nerd (just as much as Tubbo is) and when he finally finishes the auto-farming technique he’d drawn up months ago for fun, they’re somewhat friends with each other. Techno’s at least grateful that he doesn’t have to dig up each potato by hand anymore, and gives Tubbo a whole bag of them as thanks.

He gives them to Niki. 

Pogtopia trips are rare, after that. Wilbur explains that each time they come, there’s more of a chance of someone finding out and everything being ruined. Tubbo knows that’s true, but it still hurts. He misses his friends, and his home. The letters sting even more now that he’s seen them in person, seen what they’ve been doing. He finds himself taking refuge in the bakery and castle more and more often, not wanting to look at Manberg and all that Schlatt’s done.

All that he’s done.

Because he’s been helping Schlatt, hasn’t he? He’s supposedly Schlatt’s right hand man, signing documents he can’t bring himself to read all the way through and obeying every order he’s been given. Not all of it’s bad- a lot of the citizens of Manberg are actually pretty happy. Occasionally, Tubbo finds himself happy. There’s some good to cancel out the bad- he spends time with Fundy, messing around like they used to and doing some gardening. He’s still angry with Fundy (mostly for hurting Niki’s feelings- flags can be resewn) but he finds that over time, his anger fades. He even gets excited for some things- a festival that Schlatt announces one day, with games and food and fun. Schlatt even hires Niki-  _ Niki! _ \- to do the food. He gives Tubbo a speech! It’s going to be a good day, in the middle of the bad.

Trust has always been a fatal flaw of Tubbo’s. 

Schlatt had figured this out from the very start.


	4. interlude

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is the piece that i am proudest of :,)
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Schlatt is three things. A fool is not one of them.

Schlatt is smart, for one. He knows Tubbo isn’t to be trusted as quickly as he pretended to. He kept an eye on him, watching for any sign of disobedience and trying to shut it down quickly. Schlatt hates that Tubbo spends his free time around the stupid bakery girl and the guy who claims to be king, so he gives Tubbo as little free time as possible. He knows they still visit, but he hopes it’s enough.  ~~ How wrong he turns out to be. ~~

Schlatt is ambitious, secondly. He knows Dream has been absent for nearly two months, now. The lands of the SMP look more and more inviting every day- in fact, he’s already spread out a bit. Tested the waters, dipped his toes into the foreign land and found no resistance. He’s even got George on his side, one of the Dream Team trio, so he’s hoping it gives him an advantage. He knows it does. Sapnap is more of the wildcard, but he thinks he’ll follow George if Dream stays out of it.  ~~ How wrong he turns out to be. ~~

Schlatt is proud, thirdly. He’s proud of what he’s accomplished. He’s not ashamed of his actions- they’ve led him to immense amounts of power and prestige. He tells himself he’s not conflicted or confused, burying his head into his hands and feeling the weight of his horns carry his head downwards, onto his desk. He knows he’s not in the wrong. He can feel it in his bones. He is  _ proud _ of what he’s done to this land.  ~~ How wrong he turns out to be. ~~


	5. pt. 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you like this, leave a comment!
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Niki loves her little boat. She’d crafted it with her own two hands, waterproofing the outside with care and sewing a sail with thread she’d gotten from slain spiders. She loves the seat where she can turn the rudder, loves the hidey-hole where she goes when there’s a storm, and loves the patch she’d had to make after getting too close to a rocky outcrop on accident. She loves it, and hates it. 

It’s officially been two weeks since she’s seen any land, and it’s driving her nuts. The closest thing she’s gotten to land was a bit of shallow reef, where she stripped off her dress and dove into the water after lowering her makeshift anchor. She caught plenty of fish to eat from it, supplementing her diet of dried mutton and apples with something more hearty from the sea, and she’s a tiny bit worried her water supply is going to run dangerously low. But she’s survived until now, so she’s not  _ really _ worried.

She’s tired of her boat.

The boat flips too easily and dumps her into the cold ocean during storms. The sail rips and she’s forced to take bits of her dress and unravel it for thread to fix it. There’s another hole to patch, just from normal wear and tear. When she finally spots land, three days after the two week mark, Niki is so ready to get clean in fresh water and comb her hair, feel the dirt under her feet and explore a bit. She’s expecting some sort of human contact as well, maybe a seaside town. What she isn’t expecting are two nations, and a party of boys on shore who watch her as she tugs her boat onto the soft yellow sand and then heads their way. Hey, if they’re hostile, she’ll just equip her iron sword and show them what she can do. 

They’re not hostile. 

At first, there were only four of them. A tall kid named Tommy, loud and obnoxious while asking her name and where she came from. A man named Wilbur, who silences Tommy with a hand in his hair and a rough shove that the other takes with ease. Wilbur’s handsome, sitting in the sand in a blue jacket that’s probably too warm for the sun beating down on them. In fact, they’re all wearing the jacket. Niki thinks Wilbur wears it best. Fundy has ears, fox ears, and probably a tail- Niki does her best not to stare. The shortest one is Tubbo. He calls her pretty, and in her mind she dubs him her favorite so far. 

They bicker like they’ve known each other for years, sitting in the sand and tipping their heads toward the sun occasionally. Tubbo’s quiet for the most part, and she catches his eye as the other two argue over something Tommy said and Fundy buries his head into his hands, groaning loudly.

“Thank you,” she says, smiling at him. He’s gone all red around the collar, and she can’t help but find it kind of funny. It only lasts a few minutes, though, before more people come to join them on the beach. Based on the way all the boys act, Niki’s expecting them to be mean, or at least unwelcoming. It’s quite the opposite, in fact- a light-haired man with a mask over his face helps her to her feet, and offers her a home.

She takes it.

She also gets a history lesson. Apparently, they’d been fighting a war. The man with the mask was Dream, self-proclaimed ruler of the land. Wilbur was the president of L’Manberg, an independent nation started inside Dream's land. Niki doesn’t really understand it, but from the way their shoulders weigh down as they talk about the war she realizes that maybe there’s more to their story than they let on. She doesn’t hear the story of the war from both sides, so after listening to L’Manberg’s tale of woe and watching the gentlemen who run it argue over how to cook steak the best, some little part of her decides she’s a part of the family now. 

“Besides,” she says, ducking underneath Tommy’s attempt to steal his stupid hat back. He’s so expressive, his eyes betraying the movement before he even shifted to act. “Someone has to teach you how to cook steak right!”

Wilbur meets her gaze from just beyond the table, and she grins.

* * *

Cooking has always been Niki’s thing. She’s found it relaxing, and after getting a taste of Tommy’s attempt at dinner she decides she’s going to start a bakery. Somewhere quiet, and somewhere where she can meet more people. Ever since she’d arrived she’d been in L’Manberg’s walls, and she wants to see more. She wants to get to know more people, since she knows they’re around. She’s seen them sometimes, walking outside the wall or laughing in the woods. 

She chooses the beach, near where she first took her steps into Dream’s land. It’s not in L’Manberg’s territory, according to Wilbur, but he says it’s fine and knows she needs her own space. She’s on their team, but she’s new. She needs to learn on her own and she knows it.

Carving out a building into the side of a hill is more difficult than she ever could’ve imagined. Sweat sticks her hair to the back of her neck and she’s got blisters all across her hands after the first day, arms aching so bad that she nearly cries when she wakes up. She’s not unfamiliar with hard work- it’s just that weeks contained on a boat will leave you unprepared to build a house! She does it, though, laying down wood she gathers and is given. Some people stop by when they hear about it, offering resources if she needs it and food and other times, just company. She’s fond of a man named Eret, who says he’s the king and wears glasses all the time to hide empty eyes. He helps her lay down the wood floors inside her new home, and she thanks him with a smile. Tubbo shows up one day, and that’s the day that Eret stops helping. Instead, Tubbo comes with a cart full of wood and materials and starts building a dock, telling Niki that her boat deserves a better home and that with a dock, more people can come and buy her food! She laughs at his energy, but helps him start a dock without arguing. It’s nice to talk to Tubbo- he’s kind and funny and smart and has an insane work ethic. By the time night comes, they’re both tired and sunkissed and damp from the sea. Tommy shows up next, trailing after his friend, then Wilbur, and finally Fundy with more and more tools and supplies. The docks are finished within the week, and her house is done by the middle of the next. 

Eret doesn’t really stop by after that, and she wonders why.

Eventually, she’s forced to ask someone. She chooses Wilbur- she likes how he sings when they work on the docks and on the house, and how occasionally she’ll show up back home after being in the woods and find flowers on her doorstep. It’s late at night when she asks him, after Tommy and Tubbo have wandered off back towards L’Manberg and Fundy has dozed off outside under the moon. She and Wilbur are sitting inside, a mug of cocoa being passed between them as they talk about little things. Her big question comes out of nowhere and she knows it, based on how Wilbur stiffens, then tries to force his shoulders to relax.

“Eret?” He asks, like he’s clarifying.

“Yes,” she says, watching his face carefully for a reaction. “He used to come around and help me with the house, but he stopped after you all came. And whenever I mention him, even in passing- it’s like you’ve bitten into a pie and gotten dirt, the faces you all pull.” Wilbur’s hands clasp around the mug in his possession, and Niki suddenly wonders if she shouldn’t have ever asked. There’s a long moment of silence.

“Eret used to be on our side,” Wilbur starts to explain. Niki says nothing. “Now he’s not.”

“Did he do something bad?” She asks, voice quiet in the dark, torches flickering around them. It feels ominous. 

“It... was a war. He hurt us. He decided the other side had a better deal, and left us,” he continues, explaining it as far as he clearly wants to. Niki doesn’t push, doesn’t want to know what Eret did. He seemed nice enough, but obviously there was bad blood there.

“... I’m sorry,” she says, and Wilbur shakes his head, reaching out and handing the mug back. He stands, and Niki doesn’t move to stop him.

“Not your fault,” he says briskly, stretching his arms up and then grabbing his jacket. There’s a pang in Niki’s chest, but she watches Wilbur and she can tell he’s not mad. Just upset. There will be time to cool off and then the both of them will be back to normal, with Wilbur making her laugh like every other time before. War is a fickle thing, she decides. She never wants to get involved in one. “Goodnight, Niki.”

“Night, Wil.” She follows him to the door, smiling when he tucks a piece of her hair behind her ear, and lets him go. It’s for the best.

Eret shows up at her door the next day.

“They say you make good cake,” he explains, leaning on the counter and letting his crown tilt to the side slightly. Niki smiles.

* * *

Tubbo becomes a regular at her bakery. So does Eret. They show up even more often than Wil does, and she understands he’s busy with being a president so she doesn’t hold it against him. She’s always had a hard time holding grudges, which is why she finds friendship with Eret easy. He makes her laugh, spins her to the sound of the jukebox she’s placed in the corner of her kitchen, and tells her the honest truth. Tubbo is quieter but no less enthusiastic, taste-testing every creation they come up with and pronouncing words slowly but surely when he reads them out of the cookbook. Quickly, Niki decides they’re her best friends. They’re never there at the same time, though, and it’s not like she doesn’t notice how Tubbo fidgets and Eret goes quiet whenever they see each other. She figures it’s about the betrayal, so she decides one finicky and rainy summer afternoon that she’s going to have to take some steps to make them both happy in the long run. Niki’s always been pushy- she’s just good at hiding it. She decides to have a baking day with the both of them, but not bothering to inform them that the other will be there. She knows this could end disastrously, but she doesn’t care. (She does. She just knows that maybe, the happy ending is worth a little pain.) 

It does not end disastrously. It’s a little awkward, pushing through the day, but neither of them pull out swords on the other and they make cookies, then macaroons. Eret’s arguing with her about color theory when Tubbo speaks up, the first time he’s pushed himself over their words and forced them to listen. 

“I think white’s the best choice,” he’d said, which had been Eret’s argument. 

Niki smiles. 

She watches them out of the corner of her eye constantly, making sure that her intentions are in the right, and she proves herself correct time and time again. Slowly but surely, her two most frequent visitors get comfortable around each other again. Out of their hesitation comes an easiness that Niki can only attribute to a former friendship, two boys who’d known each other before the war had come between them and pushed them apart. She’s proud of herself. Proud of  _ them _ .

One day, she’s in the kitchen, stirring together a batter for a simple yellow cake. Tubbo had requested it, and at first they’d been working together. Eret had shown up a few minutes later, and almost immediately a flour war had begun. Niki still bore the marks up and down her coat and apron, and some on her face as well she’s sure. Tubbo had gone screeching off after Eret had threatened his hair and even now, she can hear them laughing in the next room over.

Until it stops with a door slamming and a panicked shout.

She stands still for a moment, playing the sound over in her mind for a second before putting down the bowl in a rush and tearing off her apron, tugging herself into the next room through the doorway. “What’s wrong?” It takes her a moment to process the scene, Eret standing behind Tubbo as Tubbo pushes back a blade from his neck, and beyond that, holding the blade, Wilbur. “Oh.”

“Niki,” Wilbur says, staring back at her with wide eyes. Distantly, she recognizes the sword falling and Tubbo taking a step back slightly. They stare at each other for a long moment, then a strange sort of anger rises in Niki’s throat. She didn’t want them to fight, to be so angry. She hated when Wilbur was angry, and that seemed like it was all the time. She can feel her forehead tighten and furrow, and Wilbur almost seems surprised when she speaks, ice coating her tone.

“I’m allowed to have my own friends,” she says, and she doesn’t care what Eret and Tubbo think at this moment. Wilbur, either. “I’m L’Manbergian, but I’m my own person too, Wil.”

“But him? Of all people? You know what he did to us, Niki-” Wilbur cuts himself off, eyes vacant for a second before he snaps out of it. Niki knows what they all have suffered, but she wasn’t there. She has no such hesitance when choosing her friends.

“Eret’s my friend,” she says, firmly. She can hear Eret make a noise, a breath from where he’s standing and she thinks she’s surprised him. That’s weird- she thought he knew. 

“You weren’t here! You don’t understand!” Wilbur puts his fingers to his temple in a way that Niki knows means he’s stressed, and for a second she’s lost. She has no idea how to fix this, or even start to de-escalate the situation. Thankfully, Eret says something before she can open her mouth and start to fuck this up more than it already is.

“I should go,” he says quietly, stepping forward and moving Tubbo aside with a hand on his shoulder. The younger boy seems scared, or at least nervous. Niki can’t blame him.

“Yeah, you should.” There’s hatred in Wilbur’s voice as he spits the words at Eret, not moving to stop him from leaving. Niki turns her face downward, and something washes over her that feels a little like regret. Maybe she should have heeded Wilbur’s unspoken warning the first time they’d spoken about Eret. Maybe he really was dangerous. She still had no clue, did she? Tubbo’s looking at her a bit helplessly, but she can’t say anything. Wilbur keeps talking, anger clear in how his words slice through the air.

“Tubbo, I’m not fucking finished with you,” he says, taking the kid by the shoulder and turning to Niki, giving her a look. Then they’re gone, and the bakery is so empty. It hasn’t felt this empty in the entire time she’d lived here, and Niki simply doesn’t know what to do with herself. She stands in the front room for a while, staring at the closed door and wishing for a way to go back in time, maybe stop this fight from happening. Of course that’s silly, so after a bit of time just staring at the door, she makes her way to her bedroom.

It’s really early when someone knocks. She hadn’t been sleeping.

Of all the people to see, she’s expecting Wilbur the most. And of course it’s him, with bags under his eyes and an exhausted look. Niki briefly wonders- is this what he looked like during the war? Ragged? Torn down? Tired? She supposes she’ll never know, opening the door to let him in and fixing them both up some cocoa. She adds a speed pot to Wilbur’s, but leaves her own untouched. The batter from yesterday is still on the counter and instead of drinking her own drink she turns to wash out the bowl, letting her hands get red with hot water in the sink. Neither of them say anything for a bit, just taking in the quiet early morning moments as the water gurgles and Niki scrubs.

“Don’t be mad at Tubbo,” she finally says, just to break the silence. “I pushed them together. I thought- I-” What was she thinking? Pushing a kid with trauma into a situation he was clearly uncomfortable with? Making two of the people she cherished most unhappy, just for her own comfort and gain? Was she really that selfish? She’s stopped talking, stopped scrubbing, just standing there and staring at the wall and trying not to cry. Wilbur is suddenly behind her, shushing her quietly as she realizes she is crying and not gently, either. She’s shaking, big heavy sobs that she knows are stupid but can’t bring herself to stop. 

“It’s okay,” Wilbur says, drawing her into a hug and pressing her face into the wool of his coat. Dark blue and red and black and yellow, the colors that she knows stand for L’Manberg and their freedom. The war she missed, the trauma she avoided, the betrayals she could never understand. “It’s okay.”

“I’m so sorry,” she says, and she’s not really talking to him. She’s talking to Tubbo and Eret both, despite the fact they’re not there with them. She’s talking to Wilbur a tiny bit, maybe, apologizing for not understanding. He shushes her again, presses his nose to her head, inhales. They stand there for a long, long time. 

* * *

It doesn’t really get easier for a bit. There’s tension between them, but after a little while Wilbur opens up again. Leaves flowers in her house, plays her songs with lyrics that she knows are about her but neither of them will admit they know. Tubbo returns to the bakery with a smile and a carton of eggs and they make macaroons again, yellow this time. Eret shows up a few days later, but after a time when his presence is rare he comes regularly again. Niki decides to sew a flag, and it takes her almost two weeks. Fundy gets her dye and string to thread into a huge square, modeling it carefully and making sure the edges are straight. When it’s done, she presents it to Wilbur and Tommy and smiles as their faces light up, running their hands over the stitches she’d so carefully labored over the past few nights. The next day, they fell a tree and then raised the log up again, the flag of L’Manberg tied tightly to the pole and fluttering in the wind. It’s big and beautiful and even a few of the SMP’s people compliment her on it- Ponk and someone named Sapnap. Tubbo says it’s the second prettiest thing in the world, and Eret tells her he likes the color scheme, fit to match the walls. Everything is perfect, in these moments. Everything is wonderful. 

Then it’s not. 


	6. pt. 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> if you haven't noticed, there will be another interlude between this and eret's pov, then updates will pause as i wait for the storyline to progress on the smp! i'm excited for friday. :)
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Schlatt makes Niki’s skin crawl. He makes her want to jump into a hole and never come out, preferably with all of her loved ones with her. He’s got eyes too red for her liking and horns that make the devil imagery too clear in her own mind. She busies herself with election things, making a little party of her own with Fundy and promising to bring amazing baked goods across the land. It starts off as a joke, but like most jokes that Niki starts it gets quite passionate. She knows Wilbur’s irked by Fundy and her running, but she assures him one night it’s all in good fun. She’s not really expecting to win- she knows L’Manberg is safest under Wilbur’s rule. (Doesn’t stop her from voting for herself when the time comes.) She’s fairly certain that the Pog Party will win- after all, they’re the most popular of all the parties. Everyone loves Wilbur and Tommy, and Schlatt makes everyone except Quackity and George uncomfortable. And even they seem to flit around him, nervous and joking nearly all the time. Tubbo and she are working on fishing one afternoon when the man comes up in conversation. Some joke, some mess they’ve made in the SMP lands. Niki doesn’t laugh, scowling instead at the mere mention of the man. Tubbo’s laughter dies down, noticing as she stares off into the sun. Maybe if she stares long enough, the image of Schlatt will be seared off of her retina and into oblivion. Tubbo asks why she’s angry, and Niki lets out a huff of air. She’s not angry with Tubbo, after all. It’s unfair to be mad around him like this.

“I don’t like him,” she says, trying to distract herself and checking their fishing pole for a bite. “He feels… wrong.” 

Tubbo’s nervous laughter echoes in her ears. “You’re silly,” he says, turning back to the fish he’d been de-gutting. “Schlatt’s all one big joke.” Niki doesn’t think so, and as she turns to look at Tubbo again he meets her eyes and she knows some part of him agrees. 

If it’s a joke, no one’s laughing. Niki’s not. She’s screaming, furious in her words as an unbearable anger rises up in her chest. Wilbur’s gone, and so’s Tommy- they shot at a child. They shot at their former leader, their president. And it’s all Schlatt’s fault. Unable to turn her anger on the man himself, she chooses to let it out on Fundy instead. She screams at him, and he just stands there, looking at her. Trying to get the occasional word in edgewise as she shouts at him, angry tears pouring down her face at the face of his betrayal.

She’s never felt so much  _ rage _ before. 

Tubbo’s crying too, and Niki can’t catch his eye as he makes his way up to the stage at Schlatt’s behest. They’re trapped, and that’s evident by the way that Ponk holds her arm in a vice grip. Her outrage at Tubbo’s position, Schlatt’s words- well, it takes a good number of them to keep her down and finally subdue her. The cell she’s thrown in is hastily crafted and clearly not meant for any kind of serious use, but it’s what they put her in and she bangs on the walls and iron bars until she physically can’t shout any longer. Eret’s nowhere to be seen. 

It stings more than she lets on. 

The only people she sees for a while are nameless and Quackity. He shows up on occasion, bringing her food and talking to her absently. Like he thinks she cares about what he has to say. She doesn’t, and she makes it clear the first time he comes within range of her hands. The next time he visits, the bruise from her slap has faded enough to only be a shadow on his cheekbone. He didn't come again after that last visit. No one does for a while, actually, other than food deliveries. She’s gotten tired of meat and bread and misses her home, her bakery. Wilbur. She needs to know what’s happened, and no one will tell her anything. 

An unexpected visitor brings her salvation.

Someone enters her cell. She almost thinks it’s Quackity, but no. It’s not. It’s George, glasses shoved up against his hairline and eyes betraying exhaustion that Niki has come to recognize in her own face, staring into the cups of water she’s given. Her hair is a rat’s nest she’s sure. She’s positive she looks rabid. George comes into her cell and leaves the door open, leaning against the wall.

“Go,” he says, and he sounds so, so tired.

She goes. 

Eret’s castle is huge and imposing, but it’s never looked as inviting as it does now. She’s praying and hoping that he’s not turned to Schlatt’s side, sneaking over the wall with care and making her way into the great halls that once housed so much laughter and fun. They played hide and seek here- Niki thinks that if Eret goes against her she’ll be able to hide and get out, maybe find Wilbur and Tommy or something. Anything.

She finds Eret half-asleep on his throne, and when he sees her he freezes. Then stumbles to his feet, cape sliding off his shoulders as he crashes into her and they both sink to the floor. 

“You’re okay,” he breathes, tucking his face into the side of her neck and inhaling. She laughs, a wet noise that scrapes against her sore throat and makes her want to cry harder. “You’re okay. How did you- how did you get out? I’ve been trying to think of a way to get you and I-” 

“It’s not important,” Niki cuts him off, wincing at how rough she sounds. Sleep would be nice, but she’s not planning on letting go of Eret any time soon. He laughs at her, a relieved, broken sound. “Where’s Tubbo?”

“Safe,” Eret promises, and then Niki asks the question she’s been dreading.

“Wil? Tommy?” She needs to know if they’re safe. There’s a burning pit of rage in her stomach and at it’s very core is a bundle of worry and love. Eret pulls himself backwards a bit, away from the hug to hold her shoulders instead. He grimaces, wiping his thumb over some spot of dirt she’s sure is on her chin.

“Gone,” he says, and Niki’s heart freezes. Eret realizes his mistake a second later, and shakes his head. 

“...alive?” She asks, the ice that had just come over her immediately melting from her heart as she too realizes his slip up. Thank god.

Eret nods. “As far as we know,” he says, then pulls her into a hug that feels so safe, so warm. They sit there for ages, silence sitting between them comfortably as Niki breathes and lets herself come down off of the adrenaline high from the past few days. After a bit, her head lulls, exhaustion creeping through her limps and making her go a bit limp. Eret seems to notice, and lifts her gently to bring her to bed. Sleep is fraught with nightmares, but it’s blissful despite that.

Tubbo comes the next day, led by Eret. He’s holding the other’s hand with a tightness that Niki is sure is painful, but he lets go the second he sees her and crashes into a hug that she knows everything might be okay. They still miss Wilbur and Tommy and Schlatt is still the evilest person she knows, but everything might be okay if the three of them can make it through this. 

* * *

Fundy burns her flag. 

She swears so hard and so fast she thinks maybe Tommy’s died and possessed her. She screams, loud enough that she knows Fundy can hear it, and can almost see the way his ears twitch toward her in the light of her flag, her  _ creation _ , burning. Tubbo clutches her arm and does his best to comfort her, and Eret joins her that night in bed with a hug and quiet mutterings of consoling until she finally falls asleep. Her thoughts from the day before are banished, and everything’s not okay. They’ve been betrayed time and time again, and the pain will just continue to get worse until everything falls apart in their hands, crumbling like ash and smelling like smoke. She wonders if this is how Wilbur felt, back in the days before she had arrived on their shores. A constant fire burning in the pit of his stomach, anger coursing through him and a war weighing heavily on his mind. Upset at betrayals and for a moment, Niki’s furious with Eret. He had done this to someone? Made Wilbur as upset as she was, maybe even more? Betrayal isn’t something she’s ever felt before, really, and it makes her want to open her chest and crack up her ribs so she can reach her heart to pull it out of place, make the emotion stop. She doesn’t do that, of course, and doesn’t tell Eret of her brief lapse of anger with him. What he did is in the past, now-

A letter arrives.

She’s the first one to notice, spending time in a tower of Eret’s and watching the world go by below them. The space where her flag once stood is empty, and the walls have been torn down. Without it, the land looks bare, skeletons of buildings rising from the ground where L’Manberg’s history once stood. She watches, and chin in hand, and stills when a bird lands on the tower beside her. She’s lucky. She spots the paper attached to it’s leg before it takes off again.

She brings the letter to Tubbo and Eret and reads it out loud to them, sitting in Eret’s throne uncomfortably and smushed together as they do so. The letter’s mostly to Niki, since in Tommy and Wilbur’s eyes she’s the only one who they know of still loyal. But Niki is sure to sign Eret and Tubbo’s name beside her own when she writes back. They’re safe, and she’s ecstatic. It’s the first good news since she escaped the prison, and all three of them are starving for good news. The bird is still on top of the tower and lets her attach it to it’s leg, so she figures it’ll be safe enough as it flies off. Then they play a waiting game. It’s terrifying, being cooped up in Eret’s castle with nowhere to go but up and down the stairs, pacing endlessly down the halls as he sits at a table nearby, only really leaving to check in with Tubbo occasionally or chop down a few trees, working on the inside of the castle walls. They wait a week. 

Niki cries when she reads Wil’s letter to her, the one for her eyes only. It’s sweet, it’s hopeful. He tells her to stay strong for him and she promises she will silently, running her fingers over the words like she might be able to see him there, writing it in whatever torchlight he’s got. The letter to all of them is so… Wilbur. She nearly cries again, but manages to hold it back in front of the others. 

_ To my LOYAL citizens, _ it begins. 

_ I’m assuming this is being read by more than one pair of eyes. First of all, fuck you. Some things are meant to be private. Second of all, it’s nice to know you’re not all horrible bastard traitors.  _

_ We’re still safe, Tommy and I. I’m not going to tell you where just yet, out of concern that this doesn’t reach who I want it to reach. Just know we’re okay, and we’re surviving. Our help has arrived- I know you know about our brother, Techno- _

“Holy shit.” Eret’s voice is reverent.

_ -and he arrived a few days ago. He’s always been into the whole chaos thing, so this’ll be good for him I suppose. Pretty good for us as well, and we’re not planning on giving up to Schlatt just yet. Keep your heads high, and expect further correspondence. Don’t trust anyone. _

_ Signed, your President, _

_ Wilbur Soot _

“Technoblade?” Eret asks, continuing his thought from before. Niki looks up at him over Tubbo’s hair, meeting his gaze over his glasses and then looking back down at the paper.

“We might have a chance,” Niki says, because even she’s heard of him. A soldier, a god with a blade, a man who’s spilt more blood than any other person known to man. He fights for whoever pays him the most, they say. Niki had been to a village once, where they’d seen him before. They pointed to a burnt-out, hollowed structure. “ _ That’s what happens _ ,” they had said, “ _ when the young god comes to town. _ ” 

“I wish we knew where they were,” Tubbo says softly, breaking the chain of memories Niki’s been thrown down. The paper shuffles from her hand to his, turning over as he examines it. Niki smiles, tightening her grasp around his shoulders.

“It’s for the best we don’t,” Eret says, reaching out to gently take the letter from Tubbo’s grasp and scan it, before folding it up. “I’m going to burn this. Tubbo, you should write something in return so I can send the bird out before it leaves on it’s own. Then you should go- Schlatt’s been too cautious with you lately.” Niki watches as Tubbo nods, getting up and heading off into the hall. She meets Eret’s gaze and for a moment, she’s struck. They’re both handling this so much better than she thinks she is, and Tubbo’s so much  _ younger _ than her. Eret looks so much older than he is, and for a moment she leans against him. 

“How do you do it?” She asks quietly, then changes the meaning of her words. A question she’s always wanted to ask. “How did you?”

“I don’t know,” Eret tells her quietly, staring down the hall after Tubbo. She knows he’s thinking of the war before, and doesn’t ask another word, leaving him to his thoughts instead. Eventually, he pulls away from her, leaving her alone in the empty hall. Tubbo comes back only a few minutes after that, requesting her help writing out a letter to Tommy. She agrees, smiling at him and pushing down the curl in her gut that makes her want to be sick. He’s so young. They lie in the mid-afternoon sun, papers spread out around them as Niki pens Tubbo’s words to Tommy and smiles when he insists on putting a smiley face instead of signing it. She doesn’t say a word, just rolling it up and securing it once the ink dries. She doesn’t make Tubbo get off the floor just yet, taking the time to write her own response to Wilbur. It’s longer than Tubbo’s letter substantially, pouring her loyalty and anger out into words on a page. Before long, she’s finished, blowing on the page to dry the ink and then securing it together with Tubbo’s. Niki wakes him- although she’s unsure if he was really sleeping. She watches him go, the smile that had been lingering on his face fading as he leaves.

Niki sends the letters out, and her heart aches.

* * *

After a little while, Eret tells her she can probably go home.

“I’m not kicking you out,” he says, laughing a little at the sudden light in her eyes. “Just thought you’d like to know Schlatt won’t arrest you.”

The bakery is as she left it, cookies stale as rocks on the counter. There’s one with a bite taken out of it and Niki grimaces, disposing of them quickly and setting to work. She opens the curtains, lets in the light, and leaves the dead, dried flowers in the vase where they sit. 

Eret and Tubbo visit as often as they can. Tubbo comes less than Eret, most of his time taken up writing or working with Schlatt. Niki hates how much it affects him, watching as his frame shrinks more and more by the day, how his eyes sink into his head with exhaustion. Wilbur’s asking a lot of him, she knows, but it’s important. Still, she tries to get him to rest whenever he’s around. A lot of the time, he’s tackled into a blanket burrito by Eret before he can even protest. Niki laughs, joining them in her bed and squeezing carefully to make sure they all fit with a bit of maneuvering. Here, Tubbo seems to truly rest. As he naps, Niki takes the time to talk to Eret about something that’s been on her mind. She had been out in the woods earlier in the week and spotted two figures- George and Sapnap at closer look. She knows they saw her at one point, but neither of them had said a word. She tells Eret as much. He’s surprised.

“Apparently, people have been saying he was spotted a few chunks away.” 

“Seriously?” Eret’s voice is disbelieving, shifting a bit and then stilling so he doesn’t wake Tubbo. Niki glances down, then continues.

“Yeah. Sapnap and George were talking about it the other day. I heard them in the woods. They say he was at a mountain, or something. I wrote to Wil about it this week, but he didn’t say anything yet.” Probably due to the fact that she sent the letter only yesterday. She reaches down, tucking a piece of blanket down between the bed and the wall.

“You think he’s picking a side?” Eret asks, and Niki slows her movements. She sighs, letting her head tip back against the wall and stares at the ceiling. 

“I don’t know. Neither of them said anything like that. I think they just miss him.” She thinks about Wilbur as she says it, and even Tommy. Annoying as he was, she misses the loud, happy shouts that would precede a visit from the younger pair. She knows the feeling that George and Sapnap are facing, she thinks. At least a little bit. Vaguely, George’s face comes into her mind, and the pain in his eyes from the day he’d let her out of the cell.

“Not surprising. He’s been gone since before Schlatt even came into power. Still, though.” Eret sighs, turning his face down from studying Niki’s and running his hand through Tubbo’s hair. She watches, tracing the path Tubbo’s chest makes as it rises and falls. A hand in her hair makes her glance up, smiling at Eret slightly.

“You think he’d help Wil and Tommy? Even after the war?” She’s not sure if what she’s saying is even feasible, and from the looks of it, Eret doesn’t either. His face scrunches up, hand falling from her hair and instead resting on the pillow.

“I… don’t know,” he says. “I think there’s more complexity in there than we see.”

“You diiiiiid join his side. So you probably know him best out of the three of us,” Niki points out. Eret shrugs.

“Most of what I did was with George and Sapnap. Dream was rarely there when I was. I don’t think he trusted me as far as he could throw me.” 

“That seems to be a common trend with you.” Both of them dissolve into giggles, something catching the corner of Niki’s eye. She raises a brow at Eret, glancing down at Tubbo and catching the smile that's spread across his face. He's not asleep, then. “I see you smiling, Tubbo.” 

“It’s true!” Tubbo exclaims, and Niki wonders how long he’s been awake. “Nobody trusts Eret.”

“Except us,” Niki says as sternly as she can manage. Her tone doesn't really stick. Tubbo laughs, although there’s a trace bit of hesitance as he looks at Eret.

“Except us.” Niki glances up as Tubbo says this, catching Eret’s smile.

* * *

A letter arrives on her doorstep the next day. It surprises her, since it’s the quickest response she’s ever gotten from Wil over the whole time he’d been hiding. She hardly gets through the first line before she’s rushing toward Tubbo’s not-so-secret-bunker, where he’s sure to be if not with Schlatt. In her rush, she figures someone probably sees her but she’s got a list of excuses in her notebook and time to spare. 

Tubbo’s there, and almost seems angry to see her until she lets him read the letter that came by wing that morning. They’re both ecstatic, and they go the next day as instructed. Tubbo weasels his way out of Schlatt’s gaze for the day and they leave in Niki’s boat, since she knows the outcropping she thinks the letter spoke of. She’d burnt it after having memorized the instructions, making Tubbo do so too. The conversation with Eret was awkward to a point, but she knew he understood. It was safer to leave him behind for now, and Niki was sure they’d be back. He served as an extra layer of security now- the beacon was only going to be lit if they had to come back.

The ocean’s cold beneath her feet but she’s happy to be back on her little boat. It’s been a while since she’s sailed, and it’s easy to fall into old habits again. The sail responds so easily, it’s a shame that their journey by boat ends quickly. She pulls the thing up the shore and does her best to hide it between rocks and trees, Tubbo helping her carefully. They’re quiet as they make their way through the woods, Niki backtracking sometimes and listening for anyone who might’ve followed. Only when she decides they’re clear does she let them go onwards.

She is not letting herself be the downfall of L’Manberg.

They meet Tommy in a field of grass, and she laughs as she watches the two boys reunite. They don’t hesitate to knock into each other at mach speed, roaring furiously and maybe a bit choked up. She says nothing when Tubbo refuses to let go of Tommy, answering all of his probing questions with as much honesty as she can. He criticizes Tubbo’s clothes and Niki understands- the suits suck. She’s gone back to dresses and comfy work clothes herself, not wanting to risk wearing her L’Manberg uniform and getting it destroyed. Tommy leads them onwards without much hesitation after that, and down into Pogtopia.

* * *

Pogtopia is pretty. Niki doesn’t mind it. It’s no L’Manberg, but they’re obviously working hard to make it nice. No mobs in sight, torches everywhere, bridges and stone. At the bottom of the ravine they’ve carved into a home is… Wilbur.

He’s in a brown jacket, hair messy and eyes tired. No longer does she see the proud man who brought her flowers every three days, who sang songs around a fire and rallied his men with a single word. She sees Wilbur instead. Not a president.

She hugs him anyways, because he’s still Wilbur. She’d been afraid that he would lose himself alongside his title, and there's no small amount of relief in the fact that he's clearly still here. She hugs him and cries and falls into his lap like if she lets go, he might disappear again. Faintly, she realizes that the man with long pink hair must be Technoblade, but she’s focused on Wilbur for now.

“I missed you,” she finally says, her throat hoarse from crying only a moment before. Wilbur laughs, running his hand over her hair. Niki takes it as her cue to sit up a bit, look at him properly. “You look like shit.”

“So do you,” Wilbur points out, tugging at a strand of her hair. “When’s the last time you fixed your hair?” Right, dye. Niki shrugged, ignoring that embarrassing fact for now. It’s a miracle she brushed it today, really. 

“Hard finding dye when I don’t even have enough money for food,” she points out, and Wilbur frowns. She explains before he has the chance to ask. “Schlatt’s been ‘taxing’ me. More like stealing. It’s fine, I go to Eret if I need help.” Wilbur’s face twists and she frowns. “I know, but he helps.”

“I’m allowed to not like it,” Wilbur points out, messing with one of his gloves. Niki takes his fussy hand in hers, shrugging.

“I know you are. But he’s my friend,” she tells him, focusing her attention on the frayed edges of his gloves. They’ve been worked to the bone, and once again she looks at him and realizes how tired he looks.

“He’s a traitor,” he insists, even after all this time. Niki’s reminded of the molten lava in her gut that rose up and bubbled through her lips when Fundy burnt the flag, and she decides to argue in Eret’s favor despite it.

“To you. To me, well. He saved me. I’d probably be in prison again by now if not for him,” Niki points out, and Wilbur winces, then smiles. 

“Your hot head got you in trouble, huh?” Eret is gone from their conversation for now at least, and he’s teasing. A good sign. She rolls her eyes, letting out a sigh of air and leaning onto his shoulder once again.

“Just a bit,” she admits, thinking of how the first time she’d seen Fundy since the flag incident, she’d slapped him. That had almost landed her in jail again, but thankfully Tubbo did some quick talking and got her out of it. They sit in silence for a while again, the voices of Tommy and Tubbo and Techno echoing through the cave. They start to move closer again, having given them some space for a time. Niki glances around and then hums. “That’s a lot of potatoes.”

Wilbur bursts into laughter.

* * *

She visits Pogtopia two more times. Tubbo has pulled a project out of his bunker and presented it to Techno, and the two have been working on it for the past week or so. Niki doesn’t mind the trips, seeing Wilbur, but they make her nervous. She likes to hear Tubbo babble excitedly about his potato farm project, likes to hear Tommy tease him and hear Techno’s dry attempts at humor. He’s actually pretty funny- nothing like Niki had ever thought he’d been like. She finds him to be pretty gentle and soft-spoken overall, but there’s a power to his grip that she sees and doesn’t mention. A tension in his shoulders that she can’t ignore, but doesn’t bring up anyways. She makes stew and potato pasta and a variety of things, feeding the boys in the cave like she would at home. Eventually, Wilbur tells them to stay away- coming to Pogtopia is too dangerous for them in the long run. Staying away is safer, and Niki agrees no matter how much it hurts. There are still letters, after all. 

The bag of potatoes that Tubbo gives Niki slowly depletes in her bakery’s kitchen until it’s entirely gone. 

Schlatt announces a festival and asks Niki to cater the event. She agrees, even though it leaves a bad taste in her mouth. Tubbo seems excited about it, at least. Something for him to look forward to. Eret shares her hesitations, but nothing seems  _ too _ off about the whole event.

Wilbur’s letters stop coming.


	7. interlude ii.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm excited for friday :) have some wilbur to tide you over- eret will come tomorrow.
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Wilbur has always been a bit of a prideful man.

When he had started L’Manberg, it had honestly been a joke. It never was meant to come this far, to become such a huge monster it is now. It had been something fun to do with Tommy and Tubbo, but before he knew it the idea had gone to his head and he’d decided hey, to hell with it. Why not? Who could it hurt? 

It turns out the answer is everyone. He hurt everyone in the long, deadly process of war. No one was safe from his plans and scheming it seemed, even if he did his best to contain them to a safe perimeter. Even the smallest of rebellions would lead up to something larger. Admittedly, it’s not all his fault. Tommy’s got some blame on his head, Wilbur tells himself. But then Wilbur remembers who Tommy grew up around and proclaimed loyalty to and Wilbur wonders if he’d created that monster, too. 

Wilbur’s pride is wounded, down in the depths of Pogtopia. The letters from Tubbo and Niki don’t make him feel any better. They’re full of good things, of infrastructure and kindness and productive events that he had never done himself, as president. It’s almost like Schlatt’s a better version of him- a better dictator, a better  _ emperor _ . Thinking like that, he goes down a rabbit hole of self-destructive thoughts and ideas that end with him here, binding tape around a bundle of explosives.

Wil’s always been a bit prideful, and in the end it is going to cost them everything.


	8. pt. 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm least confident in my interpretation of eret, but still! enjoy!
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Eret has never liked taking sides. 

He’s always preferred being a middleman- a mediator. Someone who everyone can turn to and ask questions and know that he’s there for them, no matter what. Yes, looking back on it, he thinks an idea like that is silly, but he’s also proud of his younger self. It was a noble goal. 

It’s a shame it ended the way it did.

L’Manberg was a home. It was one of many he had, and it wasn’t perfect. Eret was mostly on the sidelines, helping gather materials and laughing with his friends and building them walls to protect them. He wanted to protect them, even if it meant that he had to choose a side. He didn’t like fighting a war, even though sometimes it could be exciting. Most of the time, it was scary. It was terrifying, staring down a masked man who held immense power in his hands and was friends with some truly powerful people. Wilbur and Tommy were powerful in their own right (every member of L’Manberg was) but they never truly held a candle to Dream. They were constantly losing battles, losing material, getting pushed back further and further until even leaving the walls he’d constructed became too dangerous to do unless under the cover of night.

Eret got tired of losing. He took a deal.

It ended with pain and bloodshed and betrayal and he tells himself he doesn’t care- it got him what he wanted. Safety, a position of power as a king, a whole plot of land where he’s built and still building a castle fit for a king. He tells himself he’s not ashamed of his actions. L’Manberg wins in the end after all, gaining their independence but losing everything else in the process. Including a friend. He knows it’s silly to dream of forgiveness, but he does anyway.

Forgiveness comes in the form of Niki. 

She’s… well, she’s a girl for sure. She’s strong and brave and hardworking. She joins L’Manberg with a certain glint in her eye that betrays some layer of chaos beneath the surface, and Eret keeps his distance after that. He doesn’t want Wilbur or Tommy or anyone getting angry with him for talking to Niki. Then she moves to the beach, and Eret finds an excuse to bring her some materials left over from building his stable a few weeks back. He finds that Niki holds no hostility towards him, even though she’s joined L’Manberg and wears their uniform, surely crafted by her own two hands. It suits her. She builds a bakery into the side of the hill and Eret helps a few times, laughing along with her in the sun and resting under a tree halfway up the hill when it gets too hot to keep working. All things must come to an end, however. He doesn’t stay after he realizes that the other L’Manbergians have come to help. He hears Tubbo down there one day as he makes his way down the hill and pauses, glancing down to find Niki and the younger kid splashing in the surf and laughing hysterically. He watches for a moment, remembering the pain in Tubbo’s eyes that night, and then turns and heads back to his castle. 

It takes him a little while to get over himself. He’s sure someone’s told Niki about what he did, so when he enters the bakery one day, about a week after it’s finished, he’s almost expecting to be turned away. What he’s not expecting at all is to be welcomed with open arms, Niki holding out an apron and tauntingly asking if he wants to help in the back. 

He accepts.

It’s nice, Niki’s bakery. It’s often just him and her, with the occasional visitor. Eret sees Tubbo a lot. Every time he does, he’s back in the final control room and staring down from the entrance of a secret tunnel, watching as his friends are laid to waste in front of him. He knows Tubbo goes back there as well, it’s clear that he does by the way he hesitates and goes quiet and refuses to look Eret in the eye.

Niki’s not stupid, Eret knows this. But he does underestimate her a little bit. He’s sipping cocoa one morning, thinking about castle plans and baking simultaneously when Tubbo walks in the door. They’re staring at each other, Eret’s glasses on the top of his head and eyes bare to the world. There’s a mug sitting on the counter, one he’d assumed had been for Niki earlier. Maybe… it’s not. Maybe it was put there on purpose, and maybe Niki had left to get the flour at just the right moment. Maybe she had planned a baking day for the two of them and then invited Tubbo as well, without letting either of them know. Eret stands there and stares and then after a second, gestures to the cup. His hands go back to his own before Tubbo can realize they’re shaking. Tubbo says nothing and turns just after he does so- Eret accepts it, leaning back against the counter and sipping from his drink as a distraction. Ah well. What had he been expecting? 

Niki enters the room and Tubbo doesn’t leave. Well. Instead, he stays, glancing out of the corner of his eyes at Eret on occasion, not really speaking as Niki tells them both what to do firmly and helping Tubbo read out a word that he stumbles over, helps Eret when he spills chocolate onto the counter. He nearly forgets Tubbo’s there and Eret is arguing with Niki when he finally speaks up about colors, of all things. White for macaroon filling, instead of pink. 

He chooses Eret’s side.

From that day on, the tension lessens. Tubbo doesn’t leave whenever Eret is there before him, and he doesn’t ignore him when he speaks. The flinching and avoidance slows to a grinding halt, and there’s this lightness in Eret’s chest that he hasn’t felt for ages. Since before the war, surely. He, Niki, and Tubbo spend a good chunk of their time together in her bakery, fooling around and laughing, for the most part. Niki bakes while Eret and Tubbo joke and play, occasionally helping out. He’s transported in these moments, to a time back before everything had happened and he and Tubbo had been quite good friends. It’s easy to get along with Tubbo- he’s kind to everyone and everything, viciously loyal to his friends and funny to boot. Eret likes Tubbo, always has. He wants to be someone Tubbo can look up to, in a sense, and as their days are spent recovering what they once had it feels like maybe it will be okay.

Eret likes flour fights. He likes watching the powder explode and listening to Niki jokingly yell at them as she wipes it off her face. He’d threatened Tubbo only a moment earlier, silently overjoyed as the other didn’t panic and instead laughed, running into the front room. Eret thinks, that’s too bad, because Tubbo’s cornered himself now. It’s easy to scoop him up in a bear hug, one hand covered in powder descending menacingly toward his head. In a pose like that, it’s no surprise that when Wilbur enters the bakery, he’s immediately hostile. Before he can really register what’s happened, there’s a sword at his neck and Tubbo’s shouting in panic, wiggling out of his loosened grasp and stepping forward to knock it away.

Oh.

Wilbur’s angry. He’s so, so angry, and Eret’s fucked up  _ again _ . Tubbo’s at least in front of him, sparing him a sword to the gut and that’s surprising. Niki enters after a second of them standing there, staring at each other, words falling off her lips and honestly, Eret doesn’t hear them. He’s too caught up in Wilbur’s face and the back of Tubbo’s head, which is held straight and high. He can’t see Tubbo’s expression, which is a shame and he wishes he could. Wilbur’s hand sags a bit, sword dropping slightly as he turns his gaze to Niki and they hold it for a moment. Eret’s fucked it all up for her, hasn’t he? Their hostility is well-deserved, after all. Eret doesn’t think he’s a bad person, but he certainly can acknowledge he’s done some bad things. Niki says something and her voice draws him out from his stupor, her voice clear and strong. 

“Eret’s my friend,” she says, and he inhales a sharp breath. He knows he is, of course. They can’t be so close and not be friends- but it’s surprising nonetheless. He takes Wilbur’s outburst as a moment of his own to calm down, and then reaches out to put his hand on Tubbo’s shoulder, gently moving him aside. He doesn’t miss how Wilbur’s hand twitches.

“I should go,” he says, sparing Wilbur a glare. It’s his fault, technically. Throwing them all into this and being so fucking hostile even after the war’s over. He should’ve known that Eret was only doing the things he did for personal gain- shouldn’t he? Maybe he didn’t. Maybe Eret was wrong about Wilbur being smart. Eret pushes open Niki’s door and can hear more words being spilled behind him, but without him there the tension will surely fade. He reaches his castle in record time.

Stone walls have never felt so empty. 

He wants to make sure Tubbo’s okay. He’d caught a glimpse of his face before he’d left and it had been terrified and sad and angry all at once, and Eret knows it’s his fault. Everything’s his fault, in the end. But he at least wants to make sure Tubbo’s okay before distancing himself again, and so he heads to L’Manberg that night. That’s the benefit of having built the walls, you see. He knows all their weak spots, and the one spot where you can sneak in and out without alerting anyone at all. He comes here more often than he lets anyone know- slipping into the walls of L’Manberg and climbing up, up to the top where he can sit on the wall and watch the night go by. Occasionally Tommy or Wilbur or Fundy will be out and patrolling, unable to sleep. Eret can’t sleep either- he understands. He always avoids them with ease, blending into the dark and pretending like it doesn’t sting that he can’t say hello. The walls that he built protect them still and he guesses that’ll have to be enough for now. Eret sits on top of the wall quietly for a while, just watching the world go by beneath him and the stars up above. It’s peaceful, and it gets his mind off of everything that had happened.

There’s sniffling from below him. 

Carefully, Eret makes his way down the ladder and into L’Manberg grounds. It takes a moment for his eyes to adjust in the dark, glasses still over his face and making the shadows a bit longer. Tubbo’s not difficult to spot, however, leaning up against a section of dark stone and wiping at his face with his sleeve. Tubbo crying had always kind of been a soft spot for anyone on the server, L’Manberg or not- Eret’s definitely seen Tubbo fake it once or twice to get out of an awkward situation. He knows Tubbo’s smarter than everyone else thinks, or at least pretends to think. Tubbo’s a good ally and everyone knows it- including Eret. So he quietly makes his way up to the slight hill that Tubbo’s sitting on top of, and digs in his pocket until he finds one of his handkerchiefs. He hands it over, watching as Tubbo takes it without flinching and then jumps, as if he hadn’t even realized the action meant there was another person there. Smiling, Eret moves to sit beside him in the grass. They’re silent for a moment as Tubbo cleans his face up, then stills. Out of the corner of his eye, Eret can see him fidgeting with the cloth, but he says nothing.

Finally, Tubbo breaks the silence. “If Wilbur or Tommy or Fundy find you out here they’ll be really mad,” he says, and Eret sighs a bit as Tubbo raises the handkerchief to his face again.

“You’re not?” He asks, genuinely curious. Tubbo shakes his head carefully, before leaning over without hesitation to plop it on Eret’s shoulder. Eret’s surprised, blinking into the dark as he registers the weight and warmth of the kid beside him.

“No,” Tubbo says quietly. “You’re my friend.” Eret isn’t sure what to make of his tone.

“That’s nice,” he says after a second, surprise probably evident when he says it. He hadn’t been expecting that- he knew they were at least friendly. But friends? Maybe. “...You’re my friend too.”

“I know,” Tubbo says, and at this moment he sounds so tired and young. Eret’s reminded all of the sudden that he’s a kid. He’s just a kid. He moves instinctually, draping his arm over Tubbo’s shoulders and inhaling deeply.

“I’m sorry about today,” he apologizes, tipping his head over to rest on Tubbo’s. “I should’ve handled that better, maybe. Or not come at all. I’m sure Wilbur’s mad with Niki, right?” 

“They didn’t talk much after you left,” he’s told, shifting a bit when Tubbo shrugs. “Wil mostly yelled at me and we came back here. I think he’s gonna talk to Niki tomorrow.”

“I’ll make myself scarce for a bit,” Eret decides, thinking back to his castle. He could probably work on it for the most of this week. He has to finish the walls after all, and start working on the interior garden. It would be best to keep his hands busy so his brain doesn’t have to worry as much. 

“Then why are you here?” Tubbo asks, and Eret glances down at him before looking back out across L’Manberg. Why was he here? That was a good question- he wouldn’t tell Tubbo the real truth, because despite them being “friends” again. He wouldn’t admit to being worried for Tubbo. Wilbur’s not a bad person, and Eret knows that, but he also knows that Wilbur’s pride will always come first in his own mind, even if it’s unconsciously. 

“I come here more than you guys know, I think,” he decides to say, making himself a bit more comfortable in the grass. It doesn’t last, because Tubbo’s pulling away from him.

For a second, he panics. Tubbo’s going to get up and run and tell Wilbur and Tommy he’s here, and then Eret will be chased out and his little secret will be over and done with. If they knew, they wouldn’t stop until they knew he could never enter L’Manberg again. Eret’s frozen against the stone, but Tubbo doesn’t go far. He just sits up and turns, looking at Eret and seeming mildly surprised. “What? Why?”

Breathe. He takes a breath, then reaches out to touch the blackstone that he’d placed so meticulously. “I like these walls,” he explains. Tubbo’s not getting up to run, so more honesty spills out of his mouth before he can fully understand why he’s being so open. “I put a lot of effort into this. Sucks that I’m not technically allowed to admire them now.” He lets his hand fall from the wall, and not for the first time wonders what would’ve happened if he had turned Dream down.

Stayed with L’Manberg.

Would he have come out any better?

“...oh.” Tubbo’s voice is quiet. After a second, there’s warmth pressed against his shoulder and side again as Tubbo leans back against him and Eret’s glad. He’s missed him. He’s missed this, staring out at the small piece of land that he used to call home. “I’m glad we’re friends.”

“Me too, Tubbo. Me too.”

* * *

Eret is a king sat on a throne of lies and betrayal. He pulled his crown out of the dust and debris of his friend’s bodies, built his castle on land given to him by a tyrant. He lies in bed at night and paces his walls and pretends he’s not upset about any of it. Tubbo tells him a few days later, after their rendezvous, that Niki and Wilbur have made up. He tells Eret about seeing them on the beach, smiling together and working on some sort of garden just outside Niki’s house. Eret’s not jealous, really, but he knows better than to insert himself into their lives so quickly again. It’s a lonely couple of days until Niki shows up at the gates of his castle, staring up at his walls and hesitantly asking if he has any wool and thread. He does. She asks where he’s been, and sooner than later he finds himself in her kitchen with an apple in hand as she mashes together fruit into pastries. Tubbo joins them a few days later, and while Eret’s a little quieter than normal and Tubbo’s a little jumpy, it’s good. It’s fine. Tommy even shows up and Eret’s on edge the whole time- nothing happens. A flag flies over L’Manberg and every time he looks at it, his heart lightens bit by bit.

Someone he’s never seen before stops by his palace one day, asking for the owner of such decadence. Eret lets him in. 


	9. pt. 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm so ready for tomorrow. writing this story and not knowing the ending is KILLING me i need to get some good content!!!! it'll be weird to look back on this note after the fact, but AH! i'm excited.
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

Schlatt’s interesting. Eret’s not quite sure what to make of him at first- he’s funny and ridiculous and a flirt, and he’s absolutely fucking tyrannical. He’s got horns, which is weird, but Fundy’s a fox so really Eret can’t say anything in that regard.

They ask him to choose a side again. 

There are three sides for him to pick from this time around. Technically, it’s an election, but Eret knows better than to think that everything will turn out fine this time. The animosity between Schlatt and Wilbur is clear to everyone who watches them, their eyes constantly on each other when they’re speaking or debating. Wilbur doesn’t even turn his attention to Eret  _ once _ the whole time, which he thinks is a new record. Usually he’s the one on the end of Wilbur’s infamous angry glare, but he’s spared it in favor of an ambitious man with ram horns. Niki’s running as well, she explains to him one day as they sit in the sun. His cape and sunglasses are by the edge of the field and so is her bag, as they lie in the long grass and soak in the rays. She explains that she’s running with Fundy, a joke party that she’s probably taking too seriously called Coconut. She asks if he’s on her side. 

Niki’s side is the only one he will ever take again. 

Schlatt’s elected in a storm of shouts and astonishment. Eret may have thought that the election wasn’t going to end well, but he didn't expect  _ this _ . He hadn’t expected a decree of immediate banishment, the way that George and Punz and Ponk pulled out their crossbows almost instantaneously and followed after Tommy and Wilbur, hadn’t expected Niki to be yelling at Fundy and Schlatt so aggressively he almost wanted to cover his ears. He hadn’t expected a terrified Tubbo to agree to Schlatt’s demands and set out into the woods, a determined glint in his eyes and sword in hand. 

Eret says he’s proud, but is he really? 

He’s not when Schlatt tears down the walls. His walls, the ones he spent weeks on and built so carefully. The spot where he snuck in so many nights in a row is torn down right alongside it, the small path buried by countless working footsteps. At one point he’s standing there, supervising like it might stop them all in their guilt, when Tubbo catches his eye. Eret hardly can hold his gaze, turning to the side instead and watching Fundy move bricks instead. Of course, that stings just as much, so after a long few minutes of just standing and staring absently into the sky, Eret turns on his heel and goes to find Niki. 

He can’t find her. Anywhere. She’s gone, and after a few fruitless hours of wandering the area and checking inside every building he can get into, Eret finally shuffles his cape onto his shoulders a little higher, sets his crown straight, and finds Schlatt instead. He’s back at L’Manberg’s-  _ Manberg, now! We don’t take L’s here in Manberg! _ \- half-deconstructed walls, directing Tubbo to tear down some signs that had been placed long ago. Eret watches from afar as Tubbo hesitates, a few jeers and cries coming from Quackity and George (who seem hesitant as well, but less vulnerable about it) as they stand beside Schlatt. Eret crosses his arms, taking the last few strides to where they all are standing. Tubbo swings his axe and Eret hides a wince at the crunch of wood.

“Where’s Niki?” He inquires, watching as Tubbo continues down the row of signs and hits them, one by one, axe glinting every time he swings it. 

“Prison,” Quackity says with nonchalance. Eret resists the urge to hit him. “Gonna be there for a while.”

“That’s what happens to dissenters!” Schlatt declares, swinging an arm out and clapping Eret on the shoulder. He meets the new president’s gaze, and finds only a warning. 

“Of course, Schlatt.”

Niki’s his main goal. His ally. His friend. He’s going to get her out of prison if it’s the last thing he does. But he’s got to find a way to do it safely, without letting Schlatt know it was him and without letting anyone get hurt. It takes a lot of planning, breaking out of a prison. More than he’d expect. First challenge is actually finding the damn thing, although it’s not very hard to get the location out of Quackity after Eret spots him with a bruise over one cheek. Apparently it’s Niki’s doing. Eret hides his smile, because it’s at least nice to know she’s still got her spirit. From there, it’s a meticulous cycle of watching the rotation of people in and out of the basement where she’s kept, trying to figure out who the weakest link is. There’s one thing about war that Eret enjoys, and it’s the strategy. The mind games, the figuring out who is who and where they lie and how they act. It’s how he managed to trick his own teammates so well- playing into their trusting nature and manipulating them over time to convince them about his secret weapon. Manipulation is a subtle but effective tactic, and Eret is ashamed to say he’s good at it. He spends all his waking hours thinking about Niki, about how to get them both out of here without alerting anyone, how to maybe get Tubbo out too. Schlatt doesn’t trust him and he knows it, but Quackity is less observant and more confiding. Eret knows they lost Wilbur and Tommy in the woods. He knows they haven’t found hide nor hair of them since the election day, and he knows Tubbo’s been trailing Schlatt everywhere. He knows Schlatt plans to expand Manberg someday, and he knows Dream hasn’t been around since before the election. It worries him. 

What he doesn’t know, apparently, is how resourceful Niki is.

She shows up one night and he thinks he’s dreaming. He’s dozing off in his throne and trying to ready himself enough to enact his plan when there’s shuffling from the hallway beyond, then Niki appears in the grand doorway. For a second he really thinks he’s hallucinating, just imagining her there to placate his own worried mind. Then she steps forward and she’s got a shadow in the flickering lamplight, and Eret’s moving toward her before he can stop himself. They crash together and she’s real and warm and safe, fitting snug against his chest and his knees give out. Slowly, they sink to the floor and Eret lets out a tiny laugh into her hair. 

“You’re okay,” he gasps, and all the worry in his chest isn’t gone but it’s melting slowly. He repeats himself, feeling Niki tighten her grasp on the back of his shirt. “You’re okay. How did you- how did you get out? I’ve been trying to think of a way to get you and I-”

Niki cuts him off, voice rough and wet from tears. “It’s not important.” Eret tries to hold back a relieved laugh, but it bubbles up anyways. After a second, Niki pulls back gently and peers up at him. “Where’s Tubbo?”

“Safe,” Eret says, shoving his glasses up into his hair and letting out a breath. It’s not technically a lie, since he doesn’t think Schlatt will do anything to Tubbo, but it’s not the truth either.

“Wil? Tommy?” Niki asks next, which of course Eret’s expecting. He doesn’t know what she’s been told, so he just takes the moment to wipe at some of the grit on her face. She’s absolutely filthy, now that Eret’s getting a good look, and her hair is a mess. 

“Gone,” he says, then immediately realizes how much of a dumb fuck he is. Niki gets a panicked face and her voice quivers, but the crease in her forehead disappears when she catches his expression.

“...alive?” She asks, and it’s hopeful. Eret nods frantically, like it’ll take back the stupid word and put safe in it’s place. 

“As far as we know,” he tells her, then tugs her in again by her shoulders into a hug once more. He needs to know she’s real, and that she’s by his side. On his side. She goes quiet and limp against him, very obviously doing the same thing that Eret is doing as they sit there. The floor gets hard and cold beneath his knees and Niki is slowly going more and more limp, so after a few minutes of quiet hugging Eret maneuvers himself to a point where he can scoop Niki up from off the floor and into his arms. She has a bedroom already in his castle, a place he’d given to her weeks ago when she was visiting and they’d all played hide and seek in the halls, finding spots in nooks and crannies to hold their breath and hide. It had been a fun day, a good day- Fundy had played with them and some others. When they were done and everyone but Niki and Tubbo had gone, Eret had offered for them to stay the night and given them each a room. Tubbo didn’t use his space nearly at all, but Niki was a frequent visitor. Eret supposed this would be her residence for now, since no way in hell would Schlatt dare come in here to get her back. Carefully, he places Niki into her bed and tucks the sheets around her, quiet as a mouse. Tomorrow, they can worry about what to do. For now, he lets her sleep. 

The next day Eret heads to Tubbo’s not-so-secret bunker, the one he’d built in private and now houses a collection of books and supplies. Eret’s... fairly sure everyone knows about it but is respecting his privacy, but Tubbo doesn’t seem to be aware of this based on his surprise at Eret arriving. It’s not long-lived, surprise being overtaken by delight when Eret informs him of Niki’s escape.

“I’d been trying to convince Quackity to let her go,” Tubbo tells him on the way to his castle, hand tight in Eret’s as they duck around the perimeter of Manberg, a little bit breathless at their quick pace. “It really wasn’t working.”

Niki is overjoyed to see Tubbo and Tubbo practically launches himself into her arms, so Eret thinks they might be okay. Arms crossed, he stands to the side, but then Niki’s holding her arm out to him too and Tubbo’s tugging him in and they’re bundled up under his chin and yeah, yeah. They’re going to be okay.

* * *

They might be okay, but the world is still burning around him. Literally.

Ash falls from the sky like snow as Eret watches the flag burn, the feet under his ground already coated with a thin layer. He’d smelled smoke earlier in the afternoon and had rushed to find the source, afraid Schlatt was burning down something important, but no. He found  _ Fundy _ sitting at the base of the flagpole, staring up into the sky as it lit red and orange and yellow. The flag was burning and Eret did his best to stop it, but the wind had already taken the flames and spread them far. By the time it’s over, the flag’s been almost entirely destroyed and all that’s left are scraps. He takes them to Niki, ash smudged on his fingers and clothing and cheeks and he doesn’t touch her until he can wash it off entirely. She cries, so long and hard that Eret can still hear it through the thick stone walls he’s built and finally joins her in bed. He whispers words of comfort into her ears and hopes it’s enough. 

He’s sitting on the floor one day, spread out with his cape under his back and holding a book over his face as he squints to decipher the lettering, when Niki rushes in. She’s been quiet ever since Fundy burnt her flag, mostly spending her time outdoors and up in the towers, but in this moment she looks so alive. With gasping breath, she waves a piece of paper in the air and says  _ Wilbur _ . 

Tubbo arrives that night and they press together in Eret’s throne, him taking up space in the back as Tubbo sits in the middle and Niki on the other side. They manage to fit (pretty uncomfortably) but Eret doesn’t complain one bit, content to share his throne for a precious reading. The letter had made it through Manberg by bird, though Eret’s not quite certain how the bird knew where to go and when to go back and all. Tubbo says not to question it too much- he doesn’t. He also doesn’t pay too much attention to the contents of the letter other than through a tactical viewpoint. He’s glad that Wilbur and Tommy are safe, of course, but they weren’t exactly on speaking terms when shit went down. Eret’s more happy that Tubbo and Niki are happy, and nods when Niki writes a response and asks him if he’d like to put his name down beside their own. Then she returns the letter, their trio of signatures spattered at the bottom of the page. Eret wonders if Wilbur will even bother to respond.

He does. It’s a week of waiting and hoping and watching Niki pace the unfinished garden and empty stairways constantly. Eret is allowed out of his castle of course, and he does go out occasionally, but he comes back often feeling terrible he left Niki behind, alone. Truly, he really only leaves to check in with Tubbo occasionally and then once to inform him of another set of letters. There are three this time. One to Niki, one to Tubbo, and one that isn’t specified. Again, he’s not paying too much attention as Niki reads it out to them. This time, however, Wilbur drops a bombshell on them all.

“Holy shit,” Eret says, staring down at the letters spelling out the name. T-E-C-H-N-O-B-L-A-D-E. Of course he knew who that was. He’d heard stories, and knew that Wilbur and Tommy had grown up with Techno as kids together, taken in by an architect. He lets Niki finish reading the letter out loud before speaking again, unwilling to let the flow be interrupted for both Tubbo and his sakes. “Technoblade?” He asks, and he really sort of can’t believe it. With a swordsman like that on their side, there’s almost no way they can’t win. Niki looks up at Eret and he meets her gaze, then glances back down. Tubbo’s got the letter now, shuffling it in his fingers and turning it over as he stares vacantly.

“I wish we knew where they were,” he says quietly, sounding so heartbroken. Eret takes a breath, resisting the urge to scoop him up in a hug that was guaranteed to be uncomfortable from the way they were all sitting down. 

He knows he’s about to make him even sadder, but after a second Eret reaches out to gently take the paper from Tubbo’s hands.  “It’s for the best we don’t,” he says, folding the letter into thirds carefully. “I’m going to burn this. Tubbo, you should write something in return so I can send the bird out before it leaves on it’s own. Then you should go- Schlatt’s been too cautious with you lately.” It’s all just logic and rational, and Eret knows he’s right. Schlatt’s seen them together a few times and he’s always been careful, but there’s so much that they don’t know and so much to lose. Tubbo’s face is sad for a moment, but then he presses his lips into a thin line and nods. He shifts to get up, and Eret watches him go.

Niki leans on his shoulder, warm.

“How do you do it?” She asks, then again. “How did you?” 

His stomach sinks. How did he? How did he look at that face and lie, how could he build a dark room and sentence his friends to certain demise, how could he take sides in order to win a losing battle? How did he do it? His fingers are dark and stained with ink from books and ash and blood and betrayal. How did it get to this?

“I don’t know,” he says, because he feels like the silence has stretched on forever. There’s a knot in his gut that won’t seem to untangle no matter what end of the string he pulls, and the warmth of Niki’s head and shoulder grow uncomfortably hot after a few minutes. She burns into him, and he can’t stand the reminder of raining fire so he stands up, tucking the letter into the pocket of his shirt and swinging his cape over his shoulders. Niki doesn’t say a word as he leaves the hall and retreats to his own private space, turning the paper over in his hands once he’s alone. Wilbur’s words seem to jump out at him. Loyal. Traitors. Surviving. Chaos. Wilbur was always eloquent in his own way- Eret had admired it. Still did, if he had to admit it. He admired how Wilbur kept fucking fighting no matter the circumstance.

Day turns into night, and Eret lights his fireplace with a quick strike of flint and steel. Once the fire’s roaring, he tosses Wilbur’s words into it and watches as the paper curls and burns. 

* * *

One day, Eret’s out of the castle. He’s technically king, after all, and has appearances to uphold and alliances to fake. Which means enduring Schlatt’s company, as well as Quackity and Fundy’s too. He plays off his rage at the flag burning, attributing it to his love for history, of course. Schlatt’s eyes glint as he agrees, then mentions something about the docks and bakery that make his hackles rise unconsciously.

“I’m not saying I’m endorsing rebellion!” Schlatt says, patting Quackity on the shoulder. “But it really feels like it’s time to lighten up around here. And this fucker makes the worst baked goods in existence. I’m thinking we relax, don’t you?”

Eret agrees, and then thinks about it for a day. Then two, then three. Then Schlatt asks him one afternoon when he’s letting Niki out of her tower and finally he gives in. 

“I’m not kicking you out,” he says to her, watching as realization dawns upon her face. He laughs. “Just thought you might like to know Schlatt won’t arrest you.”

Without her, the castle feels so much emptier than before. He still sees her, coming down to visit nearly every day and make sure for certain Schlatt’s not thrown her in prison again, but it’s not the same. He almost invites her to come back to the castle a few times, but it’s not fair. She’d been going nuts in there, without space to roam, without being able to walk right out onto the beach. He’d been able to tell, and at home in her bakery it’s like she’s able to finally relax. In turn, it relaxes him, and even Tubbo too. Sometimes, when it’s the three of them in Niki’s house and when she turns on the jukebox and feeds them stew cooked over the fireplace, it’s like none of the wars ever happened. They’re all just friends living their lives and dancing together, Tubbo grooving in the corner while Eret teaches Niki how to waltz to a song that is decidedly not a waltz. But shadows of war creep into their time anyways, whether it’s by the shadows under Tubbo’s eyes or the faint smell of smoke that’s constantly in the air. Tubbo’s always tired, Eret realizes. He’s taken on a lot- spying constantly and writing everything down and sending it to Wilbur. He’s taken on an immense role and Eret can acknowledge that. Tubbo asks him one night, when they’d stayed so late at Niki’s she’d fallen asleep, if this is what it had felt like with him before. The hatred and the pain of spying, he says sleepily, pressing a hand to his stomach. Like you’re constantly sick. Eret doesn’t really reply to him. 

Tubbo sleeps a lot when they’re hanging out. He says they make him feel safe. Eret ruffles his hair and then traps him in blankets, grinning the whole time as Tubbo laughs, sinking into the bed below him as Niki arranges herself carefully against the wall. For a while they’re quiet, Niki just watching Tubbo drift off and Eret watching the fire across the room. Before long, though, conversation starts up and Niki mentions an encounter with George and Sapnap in the woods. And about Dream. Eret hadn’t seen Dream in ages, so it comes as a bit of a surprise.

“You think he’s picking sides?” He asks, watching as Niki settles a bit. 

“I don’t know. Neither of them said anything like that. I think they just miss him,” she explains, and Eret nods a little. Makes sense- those three had been a trio of best friends since even before he arrived on the server, creating his own little home. They’d been inseparable during the war, a balanced team that complimented each other’s skills and moved like they were one. Eret had always felt like an outsider during their planning meetings- like he was out of the loop with them. 

“Not surprising,” he says. “He’s been gone since before Schlatt even came into power. Still, though.” Eret glances down at the tuft of dark hair between them, reaching down and running his fingers through it carefully. After a second of resting there, he picks his hand up again and does the same to Niki. She smiles.

“You think he’d help Wil and Tommy? Even after the war?” 

“I… don’t know,” he says. “I think there’s more complexity in there than we see.” Eret thinks back to what he’d seen of Dream before. Not a lot, but enough to know that he at least was a person. He’d heard him shout in victory more than once, laughing hysterically with his friends.

“You diiiiiid join his side. So you probably know him best out of the three of us,” Niki points out. Eret shrugs.

“Most of what I did was with George and Sapnap. Dream was rarely there when I was. I don’t think he trusted me as far as he could throw me.” That’s half a lie, and he feels bad for doing so but he really doesn’t know all that much about Dream. It’s easier to lie than to tell the truth. Tell Niki how Dream had never really been a bad guy.

“That seems to be a common trend with you.” Niki laughs first, and Eret follows suit. She does have a point. After a second, her giggles trail off and then she’s speaking to someone other than Eret. “I see you smiling, Tubbo.” Oh.

“It’s true!” Tubbo’s words come out of nowhere, and he doesn’t even sound sleepy. Damn. Eret thinks maybe he’s better at the spy role than anyone could’ve thought. “Nobody trusts Eret.”

….that stings a little, but Eret shoves it aside. “Except us,” Niki says, obviously trying to placate with her words and while there is still a bit of regret and upset swirling within him, he knows it’s not meant out of malice. He’s on their side, after all. 

“Except us,” Tubbo says, and it sounds like a promise. Eret smiles.

* * *

Niki shows up at his castle one day, breathless and smelling a bit like fire. Eret almost panics for a moment, thinking something’s wrong, but she just spins him around in a circle and then pulls him in, whispering the instructions to get to Pogtopia into his ear. He memorizes it after asking her to repeat it one more time, then spins her up into a hug and laughs.

He doesn’t go. It makes sense- any animosity Wilbur and Tommy hold toward him wouldn’t be good to deal with right now. They have bigger fish to fry. Niki knows he understands and suggests that he be their lookout. That works, and he suggests his beacon in turn. Lighting it sends a spiraling twist of light toward the sky, visible from anywhere for chunks in every direction. No matter where they are, they’ll be able to see it. It’s a good backup plan, and it makes Eret feel a little better about Tubbo and Niki going. And they go soon. They leave the next day and Eret is left alone in his castle once more, pacing the walls and then pacing the garden and then finally, taking a walk through Manberg. It’s quiet and pretty- some public spaces done up by Karl and Fundy and even a central plaza area where the election results were announced. He’s faintly reminded of ash and fire from a night a few weeks ago, when the podium burnt down mysteriously. 

Eret has of course,  _ no _ idea how that had happened.

He’s standing there, staring at the remains of the podium, when Schlatt joins him.

“You seen Tubbo?” He asks, startling Eret so much he flinches. He swirls around, then relaxes slightly at the sight of him and the horns that he’s come to despise. Schlatt laughs, coming up and shaking his head. “Hey, chill out. Just your president.”

“Of course,” Eret says, turning his eyes back to the podium and ignoring the shape at his side. “No, I haven’t. He said he was going out looking for a watchtower he’d spotted before, something about a spruce village.” Eret knew Pogtopia was the other way, into the oaks, so hopefully Schlatt buys it. He seems to.

“Ah. That kid, always doin’... something.”

“He’s certainly busy,” Eret admits, and Schlatt laughs again. It’s more tired than before.

“I guess that’s a little thanks to me, huh? Hah. No wonder he tries to get away sometimes- I know I push him.” Schlatt sighs, and Eret’s… surprised. He doesn’t sound upset or anything. It’s sort of hard to tell what he’s thinking, really, and Eret eyes him from the side as they stand there. For a second, Schlatt’s shoulders seem to slump. 

“I’m proud of him,” Eret says, deciding on a fairly neutral answer. “He’s told me about the things you guys are doing.” Sort of. “It’s a lot, sure, and some of the work is.. Interesting. But he does it, doesn’t he?”

“He does.” Schlatt almost sinks lower into his posture, reaching up and rubbing at his forehead. Eret doesn’t comment on it, instead shoving straight past those small details and into something he can control.

“Well, I’m proud of him.” Eret straightens himself a bit, and for once in his life his crown doesn’t feel as heavy as normal. Schlatt looks around, then tucks his hands into his pockets and turns to face Eret, head on. 

“... what’s Tubbo to you, Eret?” It’s like Schlatt’s bent forward and slammed his horns into Eret’s stomach like a real goat. It certainly startles him like he has. 

He takes a moment to think it over. What is Tubbo to him? A friend, certainly. Maybe even a little brother, with how he tags along and used to ask for piggyback rides. Eret’s not sure that he could ever reclaim the bond they’d lost after his betrayal in the first war (could they call this rebellion a war yet?) and he was sure that while it might never be the same, he might’ve redeemed himself to a degree. “Family,” he says, once the silence has stretched on for a good two minutes or so. “I think Tubbo’s my family.” Schlatt stares at him, and Eret stares back, unwavering. Tubbo’s his family. He’s on Tubbo’s side, whichever side that turns out to be. Eventually, Schlatt turns away from Eret again.

“Family,” he says, and Eret can recognize forced nonchalance when he hears it. He can see it in the lines of his shoulders as he walks away from him, back towards the white house. “Must be nice.”

“It is,” he says, and stands in that spot for a good while longer.

* * *

According to Tubbo, Pogtopia is great. Technoblade is nothing like any story Eret’s ever heard, and they have a loooooot of potatoes. Niki backs Tubbo up on both of these accounts, and the bag of potatoes they bring back one night is good enough proof for him. Eret never gets to see Pogtopia, technically. It will remain in his memory a faint idea of two ravines, crossed like an X, and a maze of cobble and wood lit by torchlight. It’s a romantic idea of rebellion, and Eret wants it to come to pass, but in the end it may never be right. Schlatt announces a festival one afternoon, and Eret receives an invitation card clearly created by Tubbo (and hand-delivered by him as well). Niki reluctantly agrees to cater, and it doesn’t actually seem all that bad of an idea. Something to take their minds off of things. Tubbo seems happy at least, and Niki seems worried but glances over it every time Eret tries to ask her about whatever’s gotten under her skin. 

“It’s nothing,” she tells him. She lies. 


	10. tommy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> kinda felt like crap lately, but i like this chapter. <3
> 
> twt: @toobbo_

_ Thwack. Thwack. Thwack. _

Ignoring the dull pain in his shoulders, Tommy reaches out to pull the axe from the tree for the final time. The sound the tree makes as it falls is loud and annoying and he resists the urge to chop his own ear off with the diamond axe clutched in his hand. Techno wouldn’t lend him the netherite one he’d farmed for after arriving earlier in the week, and Tommy’s a little pissed about it. His arms fucking hurt, it’s night and it’s cold and now he’s got to chop this tree into pieces small enough he can carry back to Pogtopia. He ignores the tremors in his hands as he moves to do so, since they’re just remnants of sleep deprivation and adrenaline from the high he’s been on for days now. 

“Pricks,” he mutters quietly to no one in particular, since he’s alone. Alone, and far away enough from both Manberg and Pogtopia that anyone looking for him will have to make a considerable effort. “Everyone. Wilbur. The Blade. Everyone.” 

A twig snaps behind him, and he whirls, axe in hand and shield out and ready from where it had been kept on his back. He scans the woods and treeline around him, a few stumps showing where he’d already been and piled wood from before. There’s no other sound, but his body’s been trained after so long in war to listen for anything unusual. There’s soft shuffling of leaves, which could have been wind but could also have been a spy, or an assassin. Or some form of deadly animal, come to rip him to shreds since he only has a  _ diamond fucking axe _ on him.

Out of the brush comes a cow.

He stares at it for a moment, lowering his shield slightly, then slumps to the ground.

“Not fair, Henry,” he complains, even though this cow is decidedly  _ not _ Henry and is actually a cow he’s never seen before in his life. Probably one who escaped from Techno’s cow farm. Tommy however, doesn’t give a shit if Techno loses a cow or two. They’ve got plenty of food as it is. To him, all cows are Henry now, even if they could never replace the one he’d lost. “You scared the living shit out of me.” 

The cow makes a grinding noise with its teeth, then lowers its head to the ground and begins to graze.

Tommy drops his head onto his knees, watching it shuffle around the clearing and inspect each patch of grass carefully, like it’s picky about what it’s going to eat. “You’re so stupid,” Tommy tells it, laying the axe in the grass but keeping his calloused fingers on the handle. “When you’re fighting to survive in an unknown world, you can’t be picky about shit. You probably were spoiled fucking rotten in that farm, huh? Your parents are probably dead, yes, but at least there’s a thousand more cows there to take care of you when the important ones are gone.” For a fleeting second, an image of Phil pops unbidden into Tommy’s mind, smiling and happy as he wakes Tommy up with a shake and a promise of pancakes. He shoves it down. “Well, sorry to break it to you pal, but not everyone’s that lucky.” The cow chews. Tommy tips his head to the side, his cheek pressing into his knee as he stares up at the night sky and ignores the sound of a skeleton walking by. If he’s quiet enough, it’ll never know he was here. The grass is high enough around him and it’s dark enough that he could sit here forever and probably not be found by anything. Except a stupid fucking cow.

It nudges his arm, and Tommy jumps. He’d been lost in thought staring at the stars, trying to ignore the clank of bones and hadn’t noticed it approaching. He glares at the thing, noticing that it was in fact, fairly young. Henry had a pattern of markings on his nose that Tommy had become accustomed to as he raised him, but this cow has no such thing. It’s entirely brown from what appears to be top to bottom- almost black in the dark. He sighs, relaxing his fingers from where they’d clenched around the axe in surprise.

“Don’t get started with me, bitch,” he says, trying to keep his voice sharp but low. “I’m used to clingy people. Like Tubbo. Kid wouldn’t fucking leave me alone, ever it seemed. Of course it’s different now but- but I don’t miss it! I don’t. If anything, I’m glad. I don’t need any clingy bitches in my life.” The cow just looks at him, jaw moving gently from side to side as it finishes it’s mouthful of grass. After a second, Tommy gives in, lifting his hand to the cow’s mouth and letting it sniff him before gently patting his nose.

“I’m sorry,” he tells him, blinking hard and turning away when the cow bumps their heads gently together. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have gotten sharp with you.”

The good thing about cows, Tommy had found out as he raised Henry from baby to adult, was that they were fairly forgiving. At least, Henry had been. Tommy couldn’t count the number of times he’d accidentally startled the guy or tugged him too sharply in a direction he didn’t want to go. Henry always had gotten him back somehow, of course. So many toes had been stepped on. Not-Henry continues to bump their foreheads together, and Tommy wrinkles his nose after a minute and shoves them away the best he can. A baby cow isn’t that small, after all, and it takes a bit of pushing. “Okay, okay, I apologized! Go away now, thanks. I have important shit to do. Like fighting a war. Cows shouldn’t get involved in wars. I know from experience.” Not-Henry takes the shove with little resistance, taking a couple steps away and then making a weird moo-ing sound. He’d never heard anything like it before, so Tommy just scoffed in response. He tightened his grip around his axe again, holding it up to show the cow. 

“See this, bitch? It’s a weapon. A shit one, but I can make do. I’m great at using axes.” He moved to stand up, giving it a swing at the tree he’d felled. Then another, and another, and finally he’s got in enough pieces to start loading up his shield with pieces of wood. The cow just watches. It doesn’t quip back or laugh at him, or even move to help him with the work. Tubbo would’ve helped him with the work, he thinks. Tubbo would’ve loaded up his own shield and securely wrapped a belt around pieces of oak, laughing as he slung it over his shoulder and grinning as he walked back to the tall walls of L’Manberg with Tommy. 

The cow nudges his hands away from his face, licking up the salt from his cheeks.

“Don’t say a word of this to anyone,” Tommy threatens a few minutes later, having collected himself enough to stand back up and get the shield over his back, laden with wood. It’s heavy, but he’s strong. He’s carried larger burdens before. He hoists the axe toward the cow, which just blinks slowly at him, then turns to meander back into the woods.

Tommy’ll take what he can get, and heads back towards Pogtopia.

* * *

Wilbur’s gone mad. When Tommy hops down from putting away the oak wood, Wilbur’s sitting at one of their campfires and talking to himself. That’s not new- Wilbur’s been talking to himself for a while now. What is new is the stack of explosives at his feet, and the careful way Wilbur’s wrapping them up into bunches and attaching them to each other via long strands of twine. Techno’s sat there with him- not helping, but not stopping him, either. Tommy and him share a glance, and after a second, Techno pushes himself up from his seated position and heads his way.

“You know,” Tommy starts, leaning against the stone walls and trying not to seem uncomfortable, “he’s a little too close for comfort to that fire for me.”

“Would you like to tell him to stop?” Techno asks, and Tommy says nothing. They haven’t been talking lately, the idle chatter that would usually fill the caverns gone and instead replaced with Wilbur’s “monologues” or just complete and utter silence. Both of the boys watch as Wilbur adds another bundle of TNT to the already impressive pile. 

“You’re not going to let him do it, right?” Tommy asks, and this time he’s purposely keeping his voice low. Techno snorts, and for a moment Tommy thinks he truly has someone on his side. 

“Violence for violence is the rule of the beasts,” Techno points out, reaching up and giving his own ear a tug. “I happen to not be entirely human.”

“But Techno-”

“I didn’t come here to  _ talk _ , Tommy. Wilbur said it was war. I’ll do my part when it comes down to it- but this one’s on you.” Techno cuts him off, and he’s not mean about it in any way, but Tommy still feels some sort of shame at his tone. He knows Techno’s not here for the discussion and politics. He never was.

“I-”

“Is it too much?” It’s almost accusing. Tommy scowls, running a hand through his hair and then the other.

“No! Of fucking course not- I just-” Tommy cuts himself off with a frustrated noise, tugging at the hair between his fingers until it stings. “I don’t think this is the right idea,” he admits, staring into the palms of his hands, calloused and worn. After a second, Techno’s hands tug his own away and into the space between them. In this moment, they’re not in Pogtopia. Instead they’re in a small house by the sea, Techno pulling Tommy’s hands away from his face as he exposes the hiding spot he’d chosen in a bush. There’s a faint smell of gunpowder from the creeper farm, steak that he can hear sizzling on the fire from Phil and the fresh scent of overturned dirt staining his hands and knees. “ _ Gotcha _ ,” this Techno says, hair long and eyes brighter than Tommy's seen them in years. “ _ Shit hiding spot. I’d have gutted you if this was serious.” _ The words make his stomach turn, but he shoves a smile over it and shoves his friend- brother- to the side and bolts to escape. Techno boxes him in, laughing the whole time.

He feels so trapped. The smell of steak is gone and all that’s left is gunpowder. He can hear Wilbur muttering to himself in the distance, and none of the words are song lyrics that he’ll proudly show off later. They’re ramblings. Tommy knows he has to do something. 

“Then do something about it,” Techno says, echoing his own thoughts, and Tommy realizes they’re still clutching each other’s hands. After a second, he pulls his own out of those bloodstained fingers and tucks them against his chest. He turns his gaze to Wilbur and the pile of explosives, wheels in his head turning.

“I will.” 


End file.
